A digital memorial database commemorating South African service personnel who gave their lives in the service of their country. Originally compiled in the 1990s from official military documents, this is an ongoing restoration and modernisation project to make those records searchable and accessible to the public.
| Total records | 41,905 |
| Distinct regiments | 869 |
| Distinct ranks | 577 |
| Countries of commemoration | 93 |
| Records missing age | 11,517 |
| Records missing cause of death | 640 |
The original Roll of Honour data was compiled in the 1990s from official South African military documents, regimental records, and Commonwealth War Graves Commission registers. It covers service personnel from multiple conflicts and peacekeeping operations spanning more than a century.
This website is a personal restoration project to digitise, clean, and make accessible those original records. Ongoing work includes adding missing birth dates, linking photographs, verifying unit and rank data against official sources, and improving the quality of cause-of-death records.
Many records are incomplete by nature of the source material. Where data is missing it is shown as blank rather than fabricated. If you have information that could improve a record — especially photographs, service numbers, or birth dates — please get in touch.
| Backend | PHP 8.x |
| Database | SQLite 3 (single-file) |
| Frontend | Bootstrap 5.3 (Darkly theme), Chart.js 4.4 |
| Icons | Font Awesome |
| Source | github.com/JohnDovey/CreateROH |
| Version | v1.3.0 — Release notes |
John Dovey
Lanseria, Gauteng, South Africa
This is a personal, non-commercial project. All records are presented in good faith for commemorative and historical research purposes. No data is sold or shared with third parties.