WW1 soldier will be rededicated after grave found

A grave marked to an "unknown soldier" has been shown to belong to Lt Charles Cautherley, who died in Belgium in WW1

A soldier who died in World War One will be rededicated after his body was identified at a cemetery in Belgium.

Lt Charles Cautherley of the Hertfordshire Regiment died on 26 April 1918 near Ypres.

He was previously commemorated at the Tyne Cot Memorial close to Zonnebeke, but recent research showed he was buried at the nearby Poelcapelle British Cemetery.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) said it would “care for his final resting place in perpetuity”.

Currently the grave is marked with a headstone: “Unknown Officer, Hertfordshire Regiment."

Lt Cautherley’s unit, the 1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment, was withdrawing to a new defensive line near Voormezele in the face of a rapid German advance.

The action was part of the Battles of the Lys, of the 1918 German spring offensive, also known as Operation Michael.

A biography on the Herts at War website suggests there were conflicting accounts of his death, with two soldiers saying he was shot and another believing he was hit by a shell.

Lt. Cautherley was killed in action on 26 April 1918 in the vicinity of Voormezele, Belgium.

After the Armistice, an unidentified Hertfordshire Regiment officer was recovered from the battlefields and buried at Poelcapelle as “an officer known unto God”.

CWGC said it carries out research through archives and war records, often with the help of members of the public, to identify unknown casualties.

It said it carried out detailed research after a “dedicated member of the public proposed that Lt Charles Stewart Cautherley was the only candidate for the grave”.

The rededication ceremony is due to be held on 21 March, when CWGC will install a new headstone.

A CWGC spokesperson said it was “a unique event, as the solider remains buried but has elements of a funeral”.

“The intent of a rededication is to acknowledge the service person’s final resting place and give peace to any relatives and his ‘regimental family’,” they added.