Resigning your commission

[wilkokcl]

When an officer is reported in the London Gazette as resigning his commission in 1919 or 1920, what did this actually mean? Was the date in the LG that when he actually hung up his uniform and returned to civilian life, or could he have been at home months earlier and this was just the official recognition?

Secondly, what did an officer (or any soldier for that matter) who didn’t resign until 1920 actually do after November 1918? Would he have still been on ‘active’ service or again was it only on paper that he was still in the armed forces? Did everyone just pack up and go home once the fighting had stopped, even if still theoretically commissioned?

And finally, how did you go about resigning your commission? With many men all doing the same after 1918 did they just have to fill in a form? Could you just say “Goodbye chaps I’m off…” and was it any time after Nov 1918 that you could resign (assuming you couldn’t resign your commission in 1916 whilst serving in the trenches).

Questions questions questions,

Mark.

[Coldstreamer]

Hello

I have the medals to a CG officer who resigned.He did so in writing.but reading his papers I think he was encouraged to go as not even the men did what he said.

That said, he was a volunteer from Canada, wounded and then it went wrong for him. A bad officer or a clever man to get out when he could ? Willl never know

Ian

[Greg]

When I resigned from the Australian Army I wrote a letter addressed to the Governor General (Queens Representative) which was accepted by the Military Secretary for the Military District.

Greg

[eltoro1960]

Leaving the Army wasn't too easy for some men, basically you belonged to the Army until they decided otherwise, some men were home for Christmas 1918, whilst considerable numbers, were sent to Russia to fight, or Mesopotania and large numbers were retained for an army of occupation, There are over 29,000 casualties listed on the CWGC website for the British Army covering the period 1919 to 1921. A lot of them probably died in the influenza pandemic.

[wilkokcl]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. I'm guessing that a lot of men wanted to get back to civilian life asap once war was over but there seem to be a lot of resignations in 1919 & 1920 which i'm guessing means they weren't able to leave right away.

Cheers,

Mark.