Marais (G J)

SADF Wall of Remembrance (Voortrekker Monument): named on photograph "1978 SAA (Hitchens–Human, Wolmarans) to 1979 SAA (Akaando–Djolomien, Maarman–Saal)". 1979 Army. Right column. 2nd name from the top (Marais G.J.).
4 Sep 2026: Regiment leftover "SA Army" cleared -- that's the service branch (Army, as distinct from Navy/Air Force), not a specific regiment; the actual unit ("12 Squadron") is already captured in Unit. Per John's decision, the 52 records with no better Unit info were left as-is.
5 Sep 2026, FirstName-contamination revisit (folding into the 31 Aug 2026 scan): SADF Wall of Remembrance names him "Marais G.J." -- initials only, matching stored Initials "G J" exactly. Cleared rather than guessed -- correct first name still unknown.
7 Sep 2026: CauseDeath was a forward-fill copy from PN 31591 (Marais, Dewald (D)), an unrelated record -- cleared as contamination (CauseDeath-contamination scan, data/causedeath-contamination-scan-2026-09-07.md), not a real cause.
16 Sep 2026, ServiceNo contamination sweep: the stored ServiceNo '70237326' was CLEARED. It was not a reading of this man's record. PersonNumbers 31591 to 31592 -- 2 consecutive records -- all carried the identical number, which belongs to the record at the head of that run (31591, Marais, Dewald (D)). A value repeated down an unbroken block of PersonNumbers is a forward-fill import artefact, not men who shared a service number; the pattern holds across 850 such runs on this roll and is independently confirmed by Mike Sandham's research log, which attaches such numbers to the head of the run 167 times against 6 contradictions (all examined). No replacement is guessed: this man's real service number is simply not known, and a blank field says so honestly where another man's number did not.
25 Sep 2026, Unit2 service-branch sweep: the stored Secondary Unit "Army" 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 "Army".