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Kohne , Robert Desmond (R D)

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No photograph available — remembrance poppy
Identity
Person No.
31121
Old ROH no.
722
Service No.
79493680PE
Last Name
First Name
Robert Desmond
Initials
R D
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
29
Death Record
Cause code
ACC 1,584
Accident
Cause of Death
Died in Freak Accident, fell into lift shaft of SAS Drakensberg, at Simon's Town
Military Service
Branch
Navy
Rank
Lieutenant Commander
Defence Force
SADF 3,832
South African Defence Force
Memorial
Memorial
Location
On a koppie at the Voortrekker Monument, overlooking Pretoria
Address
Coordinates
Panel
Not listed against a numbered panel
On the panel
Position on the panel will be added with photographs
Notes

Husband of Mrs. S. J. Kohne

Research notes

Col (rt) Graham du Toit Last Post 26 Feb 2024: 79493680PE Lieutenant Commander Robert Desmond Kohne, SAS Drakensberg, killed when he accidentally fell into a lift shaft during construction and maintenance work on the ship at the Durban shipyards, age 29. Unit was 107 Air Commando Sqn — corrected to SAS Drakensberg (regiment already Sas Drakensberg). ROH DateDeath is 1992-02-26; place is Simon's Town (not overwritten). Cause had HTML entity ' — corrected to an apostrophe.
25 Sep 2026, Unit2 service-branch sweep: the stored Secondary Unit "Navy" was CLEARED as a duplicate. It was not a sub-unit, it was a service-branch word repeating what the Branch column already says. Secondary Unit is for sub-units -- a company, a squadron, a commando -- and this record's branch of service is unchanged at "Navy".

Citations
Unknown
External References
  • Col (rt) Graham du Toit Last Post
    Col (rt) Graham du Toit Last Post 26 Feb 2024: 79493680PE Lieutenant Commander Robert Desmond Kohne, SAS Drakensberg, killed when he accidentally fell into a lift shaft during construction and maintenance work on the ship at the Durban shipyards, age 29. Unit was 107 Air Commando Sqn — corrected to SAS Drakensberg (regiment already Sas Drakensberg). ROH DateDeath is 1992-02-26; place is Simon's Town (not overwritten). Cause had HTML entity ' — corrected to an apostrophe.
  • South African War Graves Project open source ↗
  • The War in Angola open source ↗
    War In Angola Roll of Honour (warinangola.com, tabid=1175), page 23 of 143: confirmed, no changes.
Stories 1
by Andrew Preston on 03 December 2011 · via source
As far as I know, Rob met his death in an accident onboard the SAS DRAKENSBERG. I served with Rob in the Navy Permanent Force when we were both mideshipman, and have great memories of an astro-navigation training cruise that we did to the Far East onboard the Safmarine owned SA CONSTANTIA. While exploring Tokyo one day, on a whim, we decided to head out to Mount Fuji, and the two of us walked up the mountain where we spent the night in a lodge near the summit. We hadn't intended doing this, and only had a packet of dried squid between the two of us to share. Young Japanese guys were carrying bicycles up the mountain and getting the saddles branded at each of the "stations" along the route. Those were good times! Rob was such an easy-going and popular guy. His death was really tragic and a great loss to the Navy, as well as to all his friends. On Mount Fuji - 1983? at a fish market in Singapore, en route to Japan (1983?) The SA Constantia, off Hiroshima, Japan.
Dedications

No dedications have been added yet.