Identity
Person No.
32226
Old ROH no.
1049
Service No.
76593862PS
Last Name
First Name
Bruce Matthew
Initials
B M
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
26
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
AA 1,737
Aircraft accident
Cause of Death
Killed in aircraft accident, crashed on the farm Rietkuil, 10 kn SE of Delmas, in AT-6 Harvard #7048
Military Service
Location
Country
Locality
Grave Reference
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
Son of Mr. M.D. Nelson, of Rustenburg. ref. 85 years of SAAF
Research notes
25 Sep 2026, Unit2 service-branch sweep: the stored Secondary Unit "Air Force" 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 "Air Force".
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), page 11 of 143: confirmed, no changes.
Stories
No stories have been added yet.
Dedications 2
Bruce was my Instructor at CFS Dunnottar and I his first "Pupe" in 1986 and a great man he was. I am still flying civillianly today and remember all that he taught me as if he was in the cockpit with me. Most of all the pink painted brick he made me carry around the base in order to remind me to trim the aircraft after a configuration change.
To know Bruce was to love him. He was one of those guys. A great friend. The horror of the day he went down lives on. Thought of and remembered often with smiles. RIP Bruce.