Did men transfer from the army to the RAF

[macwil]

Many thanks to everybody for their replies.  It is all very interesting.
I wonder why he served after the war had finished.  He had a young wife and son at this time.
. . .

He appears to have volunteered before conscription started so length of service could have been 6/7 years or '3yrs or duration of war, whichever was longer' introduced by Kitchener in 1914.
All conscripts were discharged by 31 Mar 1920.

Enlistment WW1

[bjo]

Poor man !  Volunteered and then wounded in the war and not allowed to leave.  I would have thought that volunteers would have left the forces as soon as the war ended if the wanted to, regardless of how long they signed up for.
I bet that his young wife and son had a financial struggle.

[macwil]

There was a lot of unemployment after the war so maybe it was prudent to remain, for a time at least there was a small wage coming in. No unemployment benefit in those days unless you were in a union, I'm not sure if Parish poor relief still operated at that time.

And don't forget the RAF was only two years old and flying was not even two decades old, it would be considered exciting to be involved with aviation, so maybe that was why he stayed as long as he could until the PTB declared him surplus to requirements.
I'm sure I remember seeing somewhere that there was still opposition to the formation of RAF with demands for their numbers to be reduced as the war had ended.