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Verrooy , John (J)

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No photograph available — remembrance poppy
Identity
Person No.
33720
Old ROH no.
1594
Service No.
80589773CK
Last Name
First Name
John
Initials
J
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
21
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
DROW 1,204
Drowned
Cause of Death
Died in Freak Accident, accidentally drowned when he fell off a pont near Wenela Base in Eastern Caprivi
Military Service
Branch
Army
Rank
Rifleman
Defence Force
SADF 3,838
South African Defence Force
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 Mrs. G. van der Westhuizen.

Research notes


4 Sep 2026: reverted Corps->Regiment for Cape Corps. John, citing SA History Online (sahistory.org.za/article/cape-coloured-corps-and-first-world-war), identified Cape Corps as a combat/recruiting identity with numbered battalions beneath it (like King's Royal Rifle Corps or the Machine Gun Corps), not an administrative branch grouping multiple distinct regiments -- unlike e.g. South African Infantry Corps, which genuinely groups different named regiments (Transvaal Scottish, Durban Light Infantry, etc).
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.
14 Sep 2026: Pro Patria Medal added earlier today REVERTED -- John obtained the actual Government Gazette (GG 5171/5575); the "died before completing the qualifying period" provision relied on does not exist in the primary text (it was a secondary-source claim). Actual Rule 5 requires (a) combat/enemy-caused incident, (b) a Ministerially-acknowledged operation (clasp), or (c) 55+ continuous/90+ non-continuous days in an operational area -- none of which this record's cause of death clearly demonstrates.
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".

Citations
Unknown
External References
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