bowler-hatted, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bowler-hatted adj.

[milit. use bowler-hatted, retired from active service (and thus from wearing a uniform) and given a desk job in Whitehall, where the trad. civil service ‘uniform’ featured a bowler]

dismissed, retired.

[1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 34: Bowler, To be Given One’s: To be demobilised and returned to civilian life].
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 260: Bowler-hatted me? No, not exactly. But they’ve offered me a trip to England.
1956		D.J. Hollands Able Company 9: If he was ‘bowler hatted’ the living he would make in civilian life would not enable him to maintain the high standard of living to which he had become accustomed.
1987		(con. WW2) A. Draper Dawns Like Thunder 129: Smyth tried desperately hard to remedy what he considered a gross injustice, but nothing could shift Wavell and he was ‘bowler-hatted’.
2014		(con. WW1) N. Messenger Miracle of Michmash [ebook] One [officer] was ‘bowler hatted with a bar’ as he was sacked twice!