Here is an example:
Walter Portwood, who after four years in the ranks of the West Yorkshire Regiment, was attending the training course of an Officer Cadet Battalion when the Armistice brought hostilities in France and Flanders to an end on 11 November 1918.
On 3 March 1919 he completed the course and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant of his regiment. But subsequent entries in the Army List offer no clue to what happened to him, and he relinquished his commission on 1 June 921.
A search for his record as an officer, which may have been held in National Archives collection WO339, came up blank.
So what happened? Here is his entry in WO338, an index to the contents of WO339.
The entry refers to “AO42”, which means Army Order 42 of 1919. And it is this order that explains all:
“Whereas We [that is, the King] deem it expedient to regulate further the future grant of commissions to officer cadets during the period of the present war, Our Will and Pleasure is that such cadets as, on or after January 1, 1919, have completed a satisfactory course of training, may be granted Special Reserve, Territorial Force, or temporary commissions, but that they shall not be entitled to any outfit allowance, gratuity, pay or any other emoluments as officers in respect of the grant of such commissions. On leaving the Army, or on being demobilised, they shall receive such gratuities as they would be eligible for as warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and men had they not been granted a commission”.
In other words, men affected by this order were not paid, uniformed or employed as officers.