The Northern Echo is campainging to win posthumous pardons for the 306 soldiers shot at dawn during the First World War. Today, Tony Kearney looks at the story of a man deemed by the Army to be unfit for duty.

BY today's standards, Arthur Hamilton was simply unfit to be a soldier.

Born Arthur Blanchard in Belfast, he was not one of the thousands persuaded to join up by Kitchener's famous Your Country Needs You call to arms at the outbreak of war, nor was he one of the countless conscripts called up in 1917.

Hamilton was a career soldier, who joined up in 1908 when he was 24 and served with the King's Royal Rifle Corps for four years.

But he was a sickly young man, suffering constant chest and heart problems even at a young age.

On leaving his first regiment in 1912, he volunteered for the Royal Irish Fusiliers, but was found to be medically unfit for duty and was discharged within days.

However, as the slaughter in Flanders continued and the need for more men continued, such medical considerations counted for less.

In October 1916, as the Battle of the Somme raged, Private Hamilton re-enlisted with the 4th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry.

Almost immediately his medical condition got him into trouble. At Whitburn training camp at what is now South Tyneside, he was imprisoned for three weeks, accused of altering his inoculation pass - until it was discovered that he had never been inoculated.

It was an injustice which would pale into comparison with the injustice he would suffer less than a year later.

His medical troubles continued, Army medics said he was suffering from bronchitis and a heart complaint. During rifle range practice at Seaham Harbour, he was found to be too ill to carry his weapon.

Nevertheless, with battalions of the DLI suffering horrendous casualties at The Somme, Private Hamilton was declared fit for active service and was shipped out to France with the rest of his comrades.

Perhaps because of his state of health, Private Hamilton was not sent to the Front for active service, but stayed behind the lines. It did not stop him adding trenchfoot to his ever-growing list of medical complaints.

By February 12, 1917, he had had enough. Unpaid for three months, Hamilton deserted.

He was on the run for a week, but was arrested by military police in Calais.

At his court martial, Private Hamilton told his prosecutors: "I consider myself useless for duty as my health isn't up to it. I feel very fed up."

He was executed - aged 31 - in March 1917, the second DLI soldier shot at dawn in less than a month, following the shooting of Wilfred Clarke, in February.

Pte Hamilton, who was never so much as shot at by the Germans but was executed by his own comrades, is buried at Noeuxles-Mines, in Northern France.