Francesco , LEWIS or LOUIS (L)

Mike Sandham OMISSIONS: 23 SEPTEMBER (mailed 23 Sep 2026, credited The South Africa War Graves Project unless otherwise specified) -- DATE OF DEATH CORRECTED, 1982-09-23 -> 1982-03-02.
- Mike reports that SAWGP has REMOVED ITS OWN 23 SEPTEMBER LISTING for this man as a duplicate, and now carries him only under 2 March 1982: "Listing removed from SAWGP, was duplicated now only listed 2 March." His March entry reads "02 Mar 1982: Rifleman Lewis Francesco from 201 Battalion, South West African Territory Force Died of wounds, sustained in an accidental explosion inside an ammunition bunker, at Omega Base. He was 22."
- THIS ROLL ALREADY HELD BOTH DATES: PersonNumber 30379 is the same man under 2 March 1982, with the cause "Killed by explosion" and no service number. Two records, one man, two dates -- the source's duplication reproduced here.
- The September date is also what made him look like a second casualty of the incident that killed Rifleman Dumba Catumbele (29711) on 21 September 1982, whose cause reads almost identically: "at Omega, explosion in ammunition bunker". Mike raises exactly that: "Same incident as 21 Sep 1982: Rfn Dumba Catumbele or Duplication?" With the date corrected to March, the two are five months apart and not the same explosion.
- The War In Angola South African Unit Profiles also give his date of death as 1982/03/02.
- AGE UNRESOLVED: Mike's March entry gives 22; both records here say 27. Flagged, not changed.
- DUPLICATE, merge held pending John: PersonNumber 30379 is this same man. This record carries the service number (76905355SP), unit, cemetery and next of kin; 30379 has none of those.
23 Sep 2026: MERGED duplicate PersonNumber 30379 into this record on John's instruction, completing the correction made earlier the same day. SAWGP had carried this one man under two dates, 2 March and 23 September 1982; it has since withdrawn the September listing, this record's date was corrected to 2 March, and the two roll records that mirrored the source's duplication are now one.
- MOVED ACROSS, not discarded: a STORY from the old justdone.co.za Roll of Honour (captured via the Internet Archive), reading "Explosion. Possible Date: 1982-09-23 Possible Name: Lewis John Dovey" -- itself a record of the uncertainty over his name and the now-superseded September date, so worth keeping as evidence of how the confusion arose. Also moved: the SAWGP page for id=30379, Mike Sandham's email of 9 Sep 2026 on the Bushman Battalion / 31-201 Bn labelling, and the War In Angola Roll of Honour citation. This record now carries both SAWGP pages for him.
- The duplicate's Pro Patria Medal row was dropped as a duplicate of the one already here, and its "no_image" placeholder photograph was not moved.
- Absorbed from 30379 where this record was blank: Unit, UnitID, OldRohPersonNumber.
- Correction to the merge above: absorbing 30379's Unit put "201 Battalion" into BOTH Regiment and Unit on this record, which said the same thing twice. Unit cleared; the Regiment already held it.