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South Africa
War Graves Project Database
Welcome
to the South Africa War Graves Project online database!
If
you are a new visitor to the site please take a few minutes to read about
our work and an explanation of the site below. All other users please
enter the database via the link at top or bottom of this page.
SEARCH
THE DATABASE
***Note
if the online request form does not work, try using Mozilla Firefox or
Google Chrome, as Internet Explorer does not always work!
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This online database
is a culmination of almost 10 years of photographing and archiving war
graves and names on memorials to the missing.
The names in this database will include male and female South African
and Rhodesian (now Zimbabwe) casualties from WW1, WW2, Korea, the Border
War and Rhodesian Bush War, as well as soldiers/sailors/ airmen and police
officers who died in service serving their country. We have a few WW1
and WW2 civilian casualties whose deaths were due to enemy action, but
they are the rare exception where civilians are included. A few other
exceptions are some military mascots and service animals that died in
the line of duty.
This project is by no means done by one person. Volunteers come in all
shapes and sizes. Some have photographed literally hundreds or even thousands
of graves traveling great distances doing so and at great personal cost
to themselves. Others may have submitted some photos from their home town,
or while on a trip to another country. Others not content to sit idly
by when the war graves in their area are done, contribute by doing military
research.
This database, we hope will stand as a monument of peace. Here we want
to remember but also give South African and Rhodesian citizens a chance
to learn. We have purposely included as much detail as possible, which
includes noting the cause of death for historical integrity. Whether you
are here for genealogical purposes to look up a relative or you are student
of military history, we hope our database serves your needs.
The war/military/police
dead of South Africa and Rhodesia came from many walks of life. They were
of all ages and backgrounds. The youngest casualty known was 14 years
and 3 months old, the oldest known was 79. Some came from nobility, most
came from the working class. Some were athletes in cricket or rugby and
one man was a famous marathon runner. Some had university degrees and
were leaders in their field, while others were illiterate. One man was
a famous ventriloquist, another was made famous acting in a war time film
and some were authors and poets. At least 6 that we know of were executed
(4 WW1 and 2 WW2), while others died in famous battles of military history,
a lot died of malaria, enteric fever and pandemic influenza, too many
committed suicide as a result of what we now recognize as PTSD, and even
one man died choking on a piece of biltong. Some were awarded medals of
bravery, most were not, but with their sacrifice, we recognize them all.
The database has over 41000 individual names represented. Not all casualties
have photos associated with their record but an estimated 25000 do. However
we were not satisfied with just war grave/memorial photos, we (the volunteers)
wanted to give back more as a token of respect, so each casualty where
possible has additional information (where known) such as the nature of
casualty, additional information about their family, their date of birth,
or citation details on decorations that were awarded to them.
This database
will by no means ever be complete. We get new information and photos all
the time. We have included all known South African and Rhodesian war dead,
but we add new names all the time, something we call “associated
with” South Africa or Rhodesia. That person may have been born,
resided or even called South Africa or Rhodesia their home at some point
but served with a non-South African or Rhodesian unit. Some are simply
children of South Africans or Rhodesians and never set foot in either
country but as they were children of citizens we consider them sons or
daughters of South Africa and Rhodesia. But this database needs YOU! We
always need new volunteers to submit photographs in countries or areas
not completed, (note please contact us before starting to photograph graves
as we may already them and we have specific formats we want the photos)
or supply us with photos of your loved ones, photos of their medals, or
maybe even service records or photos of your local war memorial/cenotaph.
A lot of the
records you will see will have a cause of death as “Died on active
service”. Where this is stated it means, all we know is that they
died on active service, we know nothing else. If you know differently
please let us know. Again a lot of the records have only the initials
of the first names of that service person that died. We do not know their
full names and we want to know. We want to know dates of birth, where
they went to school, and the full names of their parents’ and where
they called home. If you think you can improve a record please contact
us via links on the casualty record page, even if you notice grammatical
errors in our records and especially if the wrong photo is loaded into
a record. No detail is too small.
All the photos
you see on this site are FREE! We are not legally allowed to sell photos
of another volunteer because that photo’s copyright belongs to the
volunteer photographer who took the photo. Thus you may not “right
click” and download a photo, please request the photo(s) through
the online forms.
However, each
volunteer has donated their time and effort and has agreed that should
someone request that photo we can release to the family or friend of the
casualty, and school and veterans groups, free of charge. Those creating
books of remembrance for school or town histories need only make reference
to the South Africa War Graves Project and identify the volunteer photographer.
But we won’t supply (for example) 100 photographs to medal collectors
just so they can put them with their medal collections and in turn sell
them on eBay. We have sister projects The Maple Leaf Legacy Project (Canadians),
the Australian War Grave Photographic Archive (Australians) and the British
War Memorial Project (British) and all of our charters are similar. Another
similar group in South Africa the EGGSA (the virtual branch of the Genealogical
Society of South Africa) has allowed us access to some of their photos
along same principles. Our volunteers work without pay or reward, except
for the odd thank you note from those relatives of the war dead who send
a note along. This is our way of giving back to the dead and their families.
For us Remembrance Day is every day.
We do not take
donations, as it is an administrative nightmare, but rather you can (your
choice) make donations to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and make
a note in your donation that it is in reference to maintaining their good
work, especially of South African and Rhodesian war dead. We will be establishing
a research fund to assist us in paying our archives researcher, who provides
us with amazing information, but for now that fund is not set up.
This database
is Stage Two of the Project.
Stage One was
the gathering of photos. While we have completed most of the countries,
or the majority of photos required in each country, we still have large
gaps, most notably in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Libya is another country
with almost no photos. However large countries like United Kingdom, Belgium,
Egypt and France are mostly complete. Stage One will technically never
get done. There will always be photos we need and better photos we can
obtain.
Stage Two as
stated is the implementation of the database, a process that we have started
no less than seven times and are finally coming to completion with just
now. It has taken almost all of the year of 2013 to get this off the ground
and we have a team of volunteers renaming photos and loading them up.
We promised a Nov. 11 launch, but since we are still loading up photos,
something that will always have to be done we are launching now. There
are still some technical glitches to work out, but the majority have been
fixed.
Stage Three
will be the tagging of each photo to a specific volunteer or group of
volunteers where precise identification of photos is not known. In the
meantime please refer to the countries and cemeteries pages to see who
took the photo. As well as loading up WW1 record cards (have about 85%
estimated) to the WW1 casualties. Not all have been linked to the record,
so please request this if you are requesting a photo and we can post on
their record if it is in our archive.
Stage Four
is the continuation of seeking to gain “war grave” status
for nearly 1500 men and women of both WW1 and WW2 that were “missed”
off official rolls. We have had some success with this and nearly 50 men
and women have achieved war grave status due to our research. The bulk
of those missed are over 1000 South Africa native labourers who either
died in East African campaign or upon their return to South Africa, mostly
of disease contracted on active service. You will notice these labelled
as being in an “UNKNOWN CEMETERY”. These casualties were not
excluded due to racism, as they are identified in the offical South African
Roll of Honour. After WW1 when rolls were created for the then Imperial
War Graves Commission; they were missed because the Records Officer who
was preparing the rolls of war dead died of Spanish influenza. He had
submitted rolls for every unit, but almost 98% of South Africans (native
and white) serving with the Military Labour Bureau were missed as were
a large number of men serving with the South African Mounted Rifles and
there was at least one man missing in Belgium, and 4 in France.
Again we assume that
after his death, nobody took on the job (that was almost finished) and
the work was shelved, only to be found by one of our volunteer team during
a visit to South African archives. We are completing his work nearly 95
years after he started.
"War graves"
are those graves or names on a memorial to the missing which are WW1 and
WW2 related which are recognized by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
as war graves. The dates of death for the First World War are 4 August
1914 to 31 August 1921 and for the Second World War 3 September 1939 to
31 December 1947.
After those
dates the grave is no longer considered a war grave. Any grave after those
dates are considered veterans graves, and unless we have researched that
casualty and determined an “on active service” death, we don’t
include them in our project. Even post discharge graves that we find that
are new commemorations must show that death was due to service. Then the
South African MOD has to approve that casualty as the CWGC does not accept
new commemorations without approval.
Stage Five
is the continuation of looking for those graves that are considered non-war
grave. Military and Police graves are those graves that are not considered
war graves but of service people who died in service, i.e. Korea War and
Border War graves. In most cases where they have been officially recognized
on a memorial, we use that memorial as their alternative commemoration
until their grave can be found. Note that the CWGC does not maintain these
graves, nor do the governments of South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The Commonwealth
War Graves Commission maintains the war graves and Memorials to the Missing
around the world. You can be assured that every grave and memorial is
looked after well. In the larger cemeteries overseas, gardeners and stonemasons
are employed to ensure that every resting place is maintained to the highest
quality. In South Africa the South African branch of the CWGC maintains
hundreds of sites around South Africa and Namibia. We are in contact with
them all the time. If we receive photos of damaged or neglected headstones,
they dispatch a team rather quickly to remedy the problem. We have nothing
but good things to say about the South African branch or the Commission
as a whole. They are a very dedicated and hardworking organization and
we have nothing but respect and admiration for their work. Please visit
their site www.cwgc.org to learn more. If you notice a war grave in poor
condition let us know and we can send a note to the South African agency
to inspect the grave on their next visit. Note that there is absolutely
nothing we can do for the “non-war” graves if they are bad
condition, and sadly many are.
At this time,
we have not included Boer War graves or Freedom Struggle graves. While
we do fill requests for the Boer War, from time to time, we are not keen
to hand enter an additional 25000 names into our database. Thus we are
waiting for a new extension of our database that we expect in the next
year or two that will come from an outside source. Simply put we can’t
look for a grave unless we know who to look for and where. Then we will
proceed with the collection of those grave photos, we do however photograph
them and archive them when we find them in the meantime.
Freedom Struggle
graves fall into almost same category, while some graves exist, they are
not what we would call “uniformed services”. Most graves are
unmarked, and having no list to work off (and trust me we have looked),
we can’t add names to the database, when we don’t know who
to add or where they might be buried. We respect every soldier’s
grave and care not if they were white, black, coloured, Indian or Malay
or even which side they fought on, but if they weren’t a “uniformed
service” or we don’t even know where to look, then how can
we possibly add them?
We are keen
to get the majority of archived photos up first. So if you don’t
see a photo you want, email us and ask, but please look at the countries
and cemeteries list first to see if we even have the photo before asking
us to load up an image.
On behalf of
all the volunteers around the world, we welcome you to our website and
we hope our work pays proper homage to the dead.
***Note we constantly
update our records, nearly 200-300 records are updated every day, all
day, if you don't see any photos listed with a record just email us and
we can update those records for you.
SEARCH
THE DATABASE
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