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Major General Sir Walter de Sausmarez Cayley, KCMG, CB, DL (8 August 1863 – 21 July 1952) was a British Army officer who served in Africa towards the end of the 19th century, and later in Mesopotomia and Gallipoli during the First World War.

Family and early life

Walter de Sausmarez Cayley was the eldest son of Henry Cayley, Deputy Surgeon-General with the Bengal Army and honorary surgeon to Queen Victoria and King Edward VII. Among his siblings were Douglas Edward Cayley, who also served with distinction in the Gallipoli Campaign, and Henry Priaulx Cayley, a naval officer who rose to the rank of rear admiral in the Royal Australian Navy. He was born in India in 1863 and baptised at Gorakhpur.

He was educated at Marlborough College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

In 1896 he married Constance Blakeney (1870 to 1966), daughter of the Revd. Richard Paul Blakeney, Rector of Bridlington and a Canon of York Minster.

Military career

In March 1883 he was commissioned as a lieutenant into the West Yorkshire Regiment and served in the Ashanti campaign (1895–1896) in what is now Ghana, which led to the annexation of Ashanti territory by Britain. In 1890 he was promoted to captain. For his part in the Second Boer War he received the Queen's South Africa Medal with three clasps. In 1901 he reached the rank of major. He was subsequently posted to India, taking part in operations on the North-West Frontier in 1908. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1910 and in June 1913 to colonel.

In 1914 he commanded the 39th Infantry Brigade with the temporary rank of brigadier general, to which he had been promoted in August 1914, and went with the brigade to Gallipoli. Several months after the withdrawal of Allied forces from l Gallipoli he was promoted to temporary major general in August 1916 and took part in the Mesopotamian campaign as commander of the 13th (Western) Division, and remained there until the end of the First World War. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath and Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1916, and a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1917. For his services in the First World War, he was also awarded Serbia's Order of Karađorđe's Star.

Later life

Sir Walter de Sausmarez Cayley retired from the army in April 1920.

In his last decades he lived at Crowthorne, Berkshire, and in 1939 he was deputy lieutenant of Berkshire.

References

1. A Banker's Family – Descendants of Edward Cayley of Stamford (1782–1868). Cayley Family History. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
2. Walter de Sausmarez Cayley on Lives of the First World War
3. "Cayley, Major-General Sir Walter de Sausmarez, (8 Aug. 1863–17 July 1952)".
4. Burke's Peerage, 2003 edition
5. Baptism record in the India Office Library
6. Obituary in The Times, 21 July 1952
7. Obituary in The Times, 21 July 1952
8. "No. 25210". The London Gazette. 9 March 1883. p. 1323.
9. "No. 28819". The London Gazette. 7 April 1914. p. 3003.
10. "No. 28899". The London Gazette. 11 September 1914. p. 7220.
11. "No. 29679". The London Gazette (Supplement). 25 July 1916. p. 7338.
12. Army records
13. Obituary in The Times, 21 July 1952
14. Who's Who 1925
15. Who's Who, 1925
16. Obituary in The Times, 21 July 1952
17. "No. 31866". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 April 1920. p. 4445.
18. Who's Who, 1950
19. Probate record
20. Kelly's 1939 Directory of Berkshire

• 1863 births
• 1952 deaths
• Military personnel of British India
• Military personnel from Berkshire
• British military personnel of the Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War
• British Army generals of World War I
• British Army personnel of the Second Boer War
• Cayley family
• Companions of the Order of the Bath
• Deputy lieutenants of Berkshire
• Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst
• Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
• West Yorkshire Regiment officers
• British Army major generals