Identity
Person No.
32429
Old ROH no.
2142
Service No.
P1/35870
Last Name
First Name
Laurence Walter
Initials
L W
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
30
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
KIA 14,781
Killed in action
Cause of Death
Killed in action, in North American F-51 Mustang #353. Lt L.W. Parsonson was briefed to lead "A" Flight on an interdiction mission against a railroad yard at YC4394. En route his No.4 reported that he had engine problems, so Lt Parsonson ordered him to return to base, escorted by the No.3 aircraft. He then requested permission for his two remaining aircraft to join another flight, led by Major Lyon, who were en route to the same target. This was granted. All six aircraft attacked their primary target with bombs, and proceeded to their secondary target north east of Kumsong. This they attacked with rockets and machine guns. Lt Parsonson, flying in the No.5 position, reported that he had been hit, and was instructed to fly south. However, before he could reach friendly lines he reported that his aircraft was on fire and shortly after that he crashed. The flight searched the area for his parachute or any sign of life without success
Military Service
Branch
Air Force
Rank
Lieutenant
Regiment
Unit
Unknown
Secondary Unit
Air Force
Defence Force
UDF 24,808
Union Defence Force
Location
Country
Locality
Unknown
Cemetery
Grave Reference
Memorial
Memorial
Location
Tanggok, Nam District, Busan, South Korea
Address
Coordinates
Panel
On the panel
Panel 13
Unit History
Part of
Notes
Son of Bertha Parsonson, of Seymour, Cape Province. Husband of Ambrosia Merle Parsonson, of Bloemfontein. ref. 85 years of SAAF
Research notes
Locality was wrongly set to "Gauteng" -- corrected 28 Aug 2026 (second pass, this time verified against Cemetery rather than AddInfo text, after the first AddInfo-based pass was found to be unreliable and reverted). This person's own Cemetery is unambiguously outside South Africa; several other people at the same cemetery already correctly show a blank Locality. Cleared rather than guessed at a specific region.
5 Sep 2026: Unit "2 Squadron" (a squadron, SAAF's regiment-equivalent) promoted to Regiment, per John's decision. Corps (South African Air Force) unchanged.
Citations
Unknown
External References
- South African War Graves Project open source ↗
-
United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea
open source ↗
United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea (UNMCK), Busan — South African Korean War dead.
Stories 1
Lt L.W. Parsonson was briefed to lead "A" Flight on an interdiction mission against a railroad yard at YC4394. En route his No.4 reported that he had engine problems, so Lt Parsonson ordered him to return to base, escorted by the No.3 aircraft. He then requested permission for his two remaining aircraft to join another flight, led by Major Lyon, who were en route to the same target. This was granted. All six aircraft attacked their primary target with bombs, and proceeded to their secondary target north east of Kumsong. This they attacked with rockets and machine guns. Lt Parsonson, flying in the No.5 position, reported that he had been hit, and was instructed to fly south. However, before he could reach friendly lines he reported that his aircraft was on fire and shortly after that he crashed. The flight searched the area for his parachute or any sign of life without success.
Dedications
No dedications have been added yet.