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Carey-Thomas , William Warren (W W)

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Identity
Person No.
29692
Old ROH no.
34929
Service No.
Unknown
First Name
William Warren
Initials
W W
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
37
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
KIA 14,780
Killed in action
Cause of Death
Killed in action, shot through the heart by ground fire whilst on a bombing mission air over Benoni against the Revolutionaries during the Rand Revolt. He was an Observer in an aircraft piloted by Colonel Sir Pierre Van Ryneveld
Military Service
Branch
Air Force
Rank
Captain
Regiment
Unknown
Unit
Unknown
Secondary Unit
Navy
Defence Force
UDF 24,809
Union Defence Force
Notes

Son of the late C. Carey-Thomas and Mrs. Carey-Thomas of Penarth, Glam. South Wales. Born Cardiff, South Wales

Research notes

First record of a sequential SAWGP citation smear; following PersonNumbers cleared. Award not independently name-matched. SN CORRECTION 25 Aug 2026: ServiceNo 76586106BT cleared -- the pantser.cmvo.org.za SADF deaths PDF lists that number under "CANNER, CRISPIN JOHN" (AB, Sterf 02 09 84), matching PersonNumber 29690 (Canner, DateDeath 1984-09-02) by surname and exact date, not this record. Original value: "76586106BT". Left as an unresolved collision otherwise -- this correction is specific to this one PDF-confirmed case, not a general claim this record's other data is wrong. | Unit was incorrectly set to "32 (Buffalo) Battalion" (a SADF unit not formed until 1975) — impossible for this pre-1975 death. Found and cleared 27 Aug 2026 while investigating a family correction email about PersonNumber 31346 (Lipschild), which had the same wrong Unit; a further check found 22 other pre-1975 records sharing it. Root cause not identified (no source in this record names a unit at all beyond the generic Unit2 arm-of-service tag, or the Regiment already on file) — Unit left blank rather than guessed.

Citations

EG Sup 4 June 1917 - "King's Birthday" pg. 1069

Stories 1
by Johan Meyer on 24 June 2009 · via source
Rand Revolt On Friday, 10 March 1922, a series of explosions signalled the advance of the Red commandos and an orgy of violence began. To quell this the Union Defence Force was called out, as well as the aircraft of the fledgling SAAF and the artillery. By this time, Brakpan was already in the hands of the rebels, and pitched battles were raging between the strikers and the police for control of Benoni and Springs. Aeroplanes strafed rebels and bombed the Workers' Hall at Benoni. Rebels besieged the Brakpan and Benoni police garrisons. At Brixton 1,500 rebels surrounded 183 policemen and besieged them for 48 hours. From the air, pilots observed the plight of the beleaguered Brixton policemen. Swooping over them, they dropped supplies, and then returned to bomb the rebels. During one of these sorties Colonel Sir Pierre van Ryneveld's observer, Captain Carey-Thomas, was shot through the heart.
Dedications

No dedications have been added yet.