Private Hamp is a nonentity, a creature whose undistinguished
simplicity borders on simple-mindedness. The primitive machinery of war
has plucked him from the grime of a Lancashire mill town and flung him
down in the bloodsoaked mud of Passchendaele so that he may enjoy the
privilege of meeting an unceremonious death in the service of his native
land. But when one day Hamp scrambles out of a shell hole and walks
away from battle, the Army finds itself compelled to notice his
existence.He is court-martialled for desertion in the face of the enemy. The
guards, the lieutenant who acts as his defending counsel, the padre -
all try to make him realize that the court could insist on the maximum
penalty. Obtusely, Hamp has utter faith in his counsel's power of words
and in the fact that everybody is really too busy with the war to
trouble about his insignificant crime. But it is decreed - there is "a
danger of rot setting in". Hamp is rendered insensible with rum and
morphia and carried out, strapped to a chair, to meet a death as
unceremonious as the Army can make it.