Identity
Person No.
33887
Old ROH no.
2118
Service No.
P1/34883
Last Name
First Name
William Edmund St. Elmo
Initials
W E St E
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
25
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 #319. Lts W.E. St E. Wilson, Frost, Gow and de la Harpe were conducting an armed reconnaissance of road routes from Wonsan through Hamhung, terminating at the Chosin reservoir. After arriving over Wonsan, Lt Wilson informed Lt Gow that he was about to begin his sweep and the flight lost altitude. North of Wonsan, Wilson did a search of the roads, and at Munchon he called to say that he intended to orbit to the left. He was seen to complete two circles, when he suddenly banked to the right and commenced climbing. Lt Gow noticed that Lt Wilson's aircraft was streaming white smoke, and on advising him, was told that it was coolant as the aircraft's temperature was rising. No flak had been observed. Lt Wilson baled out at 3000 feet north of Wonsan, but landed in the choppy sea rather than on land. Lt Gow sent out a Mayday call and a SA-16 amphibious aircraft responded within the hour. While waiting for the SA-16, numerous aircraft attempted to locate Lt Wilson in the water, without success. The SA-16 landed and spotted glimpses of Lt Wilson's Mae West lifejacket, but after 35 minutes this disappeared, and he was not seen again
Military Service
Branch
Air Force
Rank
Lieutenant
Regiment
Unit
Unknown
Secondary Unit
Navy
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
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
Lts W.E. St E. Wilson, Frost, Gow and de la Harpe were conducting an armed reconnaissance of road routes from Wonsan through Hamhung, terminating at the Chosin reservoir. After arriving over Wonsan, Lt Wilson informed Lt Gow that he was about to begin his sweep and the flight lost altitude. North of Wonsan, Wilson did a search of the roads, and at Munchon he called to say that he intended to orbit to the left. He was seen to complete two circles, when he suddenly banked to the right and commenced climbing. Lt Gow noticed that Lt Wilson's aircraft was streaming white smoke, and on advising him, was told that it was coolant as the aircraft's temperature was rising. No flak had been observed. Lt Wilson baled out at 3000 feet north of Wonsan, but landed in the choppy sea rather than on land. Lt Gow sent out a Mayday call and a SA-16 amphibious aircraft responded within the hour. While waiting for the SA-16, numerous aircraft attempted to locate Lt Wilson in the water, without success. The SA-16 landed and spotted glimpses of Lt Wilson's Mae West lifejacket, but after 35 minutes this disappeared, and he was not seen again. Unknown Unknown
Dedications
No dedications have been added yet.