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Le-Suer-Des-Fresnes , Gordon William (G W)

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Identity
Person No.
41305
Service No.
Unknown
First Name
Gordon William
Initials
G W
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
45
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
Unknown
Cause of Death
Died at Millbank Military Hospital
Military Service
Rank
Captain
Regiment
Unknown
Secondary Unit
Regimental Band, HQ Coy.
Defence Force
UK 4,066
British forces
Notes

Son of Hendrik and Johanna Susanna Reynders le Sueur. Private Secretary of Cecil John Rhodes, born in Cape Town, he was educated at Diocesan College (Bishops) and entered the Cape Civil Service in 1892. In 1897 he went to Rhodesia and was one of Cecil Rhodes's private secretaries until the statesman's death in 1902. In 1904 he founded the Inhambane Oil Union, an exploration company in Mozambique, and also started a biography of his former employer. In 1906, however, The Rhodes Trustees bought his material on condition he abandoned the project. Entering journalism he returned to Rhodesia in 1910 and in 1913 published his reminiscences of Cecil Rhodes.

Research notes


4 Sep 2026: Regiment leftover "Royal Army Service Corps" (a branch, not a specific regiment) moved to Corps, per John's decision on the broader Regiment/Corps field-swap review.
16 Sep 2026, ServiceNo contamination sweep: the stored ServiceNo '2263' was CLEARED. It was not a reading of this man's record. PersonNumbers 41304 to 41305 -- 2 consecutive records -- all carried the identical number, which belongs to the record at the head of that run (41304, Maquena, Jan (J)). A value repeated down an unbroken block of PersonNumbers is a forward-fill import artefact, not men who shared a service number; the pattern holds across 850 such runs on this roll and is independently confirmed by Mike Sandham's research log, which attaches such numbers to the head of the run 167 times against 6 contradictions (all examined). No replacement is guessed: this man's real service number is simply not known, and a blank field says so honestly where another man's number did not.

Citations

***Submitted for War Grave Status to CWGC, awaiting acceptance

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