elderly man who is second in command of the company that's coming on duty, and Hardy, the captain of the company that is coming off duty, to set the scene. Hardy starts to do this when pointing out features on a map of the front line, "Here we are, we hold two hundred yards of front line. We have a lewis gun here and one in this little sap here and sentry posts where the crosses are". Sherriff also uses Hardy and Osborne to give an insight into the character, Stanhope's, personality and to