"The Commanding Officer Has Lost A Personal Friend, And The Suffolk Regiment, A Brilliant Soldier"

Early on the morning of Sunday 9th May 1915, Major William Oxenham Cautley, late of the 3rd Battalion who was serving with the 1st Northamptonshire Regiment was killed in the front line near the village of Aubers in northern France.
He was wounded while leading his men against the German trenches. No sooner had he got his men out of their trenches, when he was hit on the parapet by a bullet to the chest. As he was being bandaged up, another bullet struck him. The second bullet was fatal and Cautley died instantly. 
Battalion Orders issued to the 3rd Battalion at Felixstowe, by Lieutenant-Colonel Massy-Lloyd, on the 20 May, carried the following appreciation of Bill Cautley: 
"It is with deep regret that the Commanding Officer has to announce the death of Major W. O. Cautley, D.S.O., killed in action. Major Cautley by the keen interest he always took in the welfare of the battn., endeared himself to all ranks, and in the end brought a great distinction not only to himself, but to the battn. to which he was so devoted. The Commanding Officer has lost a personal friend, and the Suffolk Regiment, a brilliant soldier."

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