Identity
Person No.
31814
Old ROH no.
935
Service No.
83412064BG
Last Name
First Name
Matthew William Wallace
Initials
M W W
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
20
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
DOW 2,734
Died of wounds
Cause of Death
Died of wounds, received when unit walked into an ambush in South West Angola. The Fapla forces had laid out a perfect killing acre, marked with rocks in the trees. They had just come out of the TB and were about to start sweeping the road for landmines. On the road was the five man sweeping team, two soldiers out ahead walking recce, two soldiers walking protection on the left and two soldiers walking protection on the right. They were just setting off when there was a loud explosion. From the right hand side of the road masses of small arms fire as well as RPG, mortar and rifle grenades were fired at them
Military Service
Branch
Army
Rank
Corporal
Regiment
Corps
Unit
Unknown
Secondary Unit
25 Field Squadron
Defence Force
SADF 3,843
South African Defence Force
Location
Country
Locality
Cemetery
Grave Reference
Unit History
Role at time of death
Field Engineers
Status
Permanent Force (Regular)
Part of
Formed 1973 from 17 Field Squadron (relocated from Potchefstroom to Bethlehem, 1967); listed as the primary deployment unit of the SA Army Engineer Formation's regular units.
Awards
South Africa
Pro Patria Medal warrant, Government Gazette No. 5171 (25 Jun 1976), Rule 5, as amended by GG No. 5575 (3 Jun 1977); discontinued by GG No. 25213 (25 Jul 2003, Schedule corrected by GG No. 26778, 17 Sep 2004) for service on/after 27 Apr 2003. Gazette extracts: https://rohsa.co.za/award.php?id=24
Notes
Son of Mr. R. P. McGregor
Research notes
4 Sep 2026: Unit leftover "2 Field Engineer Regiment" (a named regiment, not a sub-unit) moved to Regiment. Corps unchanged.
14 Sep 2026: Pro Patria Medal added -- database-wide sweep for SADF Border War operational-area deaths within the medal's gazetted window (25 Jun 1976 - 27 Apr 2003), per the warrant's died-before-qualifying-period provision. See PersonAward.Citation for the gazette references.
Citations
Unknown
External References
-
SADF.info Border Roll of Honour
open source ↗
SADF.info Border RoH
- South African War Graves Project open source ↗
-
The War in Angola
open source ↗
War In Angola Roll of Honour (warinangola.com, tabid=1175), pages 66-76 of 143: confirmed, no changes.
Stories 4
24 Field Squadron mine hunt sw angola march 1987 wounded in ambush by either mortar or rifle grenade casavaced and later died
Cpl MCGregor, he was Troop Sergeant for callsign ECHO 50, operating out of Oshakati, 25 Field Engineer Squadron. 12/1986-03/1987. KIA when our troop were ambushed during the morning of March 9th 1987 (if memory serves). We were on a mine hunt in southern Angola.
He was my brother and I was very proud of him. If I think back of Wallace he would have been a very good soldier. RIP my brother, I will see you again.
Wallace and I did our training together as sapper at Bossiespruit near Kroonstad in 1986. I think he was in Delta company, I did not know him personally but everybody knew who each other in the camp was as we were only about 90 that did RO'S in the end. We still remember him as a very kind and good person.
Dedications 2
Wallis - I remember him as a 18 year old school boy in Paarl - not a bad guy at all !!!! xx xx
wallace i am sorry my friend i was not with you when you died in the end the grenade broke your head into jelly and as we struggled to keep the drip in your arm you twitched and rattled and moaned the choppers took an hour to arrive in but by then you were quiet again and we heard in the morning you had gone i should have shared your bivvy that night for you had some bad feelings i remember you said but i couldnt be bothered to move over so you spent your very last night alone. i am sorry comrade, please forgive me jon ***