Walter de Sausmarez Cayley

Major-General Sir Walter de Sausmarez Cayley, KCMG CB, (1864 - 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.

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 Australian Navy. He was born in India in 1863 and baptised at Gorakhpur.

He was educated at Marlborough College and Sandhurst Military Academy.

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.

In 1883 he joined 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, and during it. 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.

In 1914 he commanded the 39th Infantry Brigade with the rank of Brigadier-General, and went with the Brigade to Gallipoli. After the withdrawal from Gallipoli he took part in the Mesopotamian campaign as commander of the 13th (Western) Division, and remained there until the end of World War I. He was mad a CB and CMG in 1916, and a KCMG in 1917. For his services in World War I he was awarded Serbia's Order of Karađorđe's Star.

Sir Walter de Sausmarez Cayley retired from the army in 1920. In his last decades he lived at Crowthorne, Berkshire. and in 1939 he was Deputy Lieutenant of Berkshire.