Identity
Person No.
32986
Service No.
77273555
Last Name
First Name
Benjamin Barnetson
Initials
B B
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
21
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
DOAS 7,466
Died on active service
Military Service
Location
Country
Locality
Cemetery
Grave Reference
Unit History
Role at time of death
Infantry (area defence)
Status
Commando (Area Bound Reserve)
Part of
SADF Commando System
category
Part of
Generic Regiment-field text used across hundreds of records whose actual unit is a specific local Commando (e.g. Rustenburg Commando, Boksburg Commando -- captured in Unit). Post-WWII, "Commando" is its own force-component category alongside Regular/Permanent Force and Active Citizen Force -- area-bound, part-time reserve units tied to a specific district, mobilised for local counter-insurgency/area protection duties during the Border War era. Not a single regiment; this Status applies to the whole category.
Notes
Son of Mr. and Mrs. B. B. Smit, of the Strand.
Research notes
25 Sep 2026, Unit2 service-branch sweep: the stored Secondary Unit "Air Force" was CLEARED. It was not a sub-unit, it was a service-branch word, and it CONTRADICTED this record's own Branch, "Army". Across the roll 787 records carried such a contradiction; judged against Corps and Regiment -- independent of both columns -- the evidence backed Branch 744 times and Unit2 not once. Branch is therefore kept and the contradicting word removed. Nothing is guessed: this man's branch of service is already recorded, and his sub-unit, if any, is simply not known.
Citations
Unknown
External References
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