Identity
Person No.
29831
Old ROH no.
248
Service No.
77529360PF
Last Name
First Name
James
Initials
J
Date of Birth
Age at Death
20
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
SHOT 548
Shot
Cause of Death
Died in Shooting Incident, shot by own forces near Evale (Operation Groenslang)
Military Service
Branch
Army
Rank
Sergeant
Regiment
32 (Buffalo) Battalion 275
Later renamed
32 Battalion
Unit
Unknown
Defence Force
SADF 3,874
South African Defence Force
Location
Country
Locality
Cemetery
Grave Reference
Coordinates
Memorial
Memorial
Location
Within the Voortrekker Monument heritage precinct, Pretoria
Address
Coordinates
Panel
On the panel
No. 85
Notes
Son of Mr. F. A. Conroy, of Vanderbijlpark and Mrs. C. Conroy, of Oudtshoorn. James was the great grandson of the famous Cape Rebel Commandant Edwin Alfred Conroy
Research notes
Colyn Brookes, Mibisa: Volume One – Western Cape (Lulu, 2013, ISBN 9781447682523): Oudtshoorn Old Cemetery, Necropolis Road.
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
-
MIBISA Volume One – Western Cape
open source ↗
Oudtshoorn Old Cemetery, Necropolis Road
-
SADF.info Border Roll of Honour
open source ↗
SADF.info Border RoH
- South African War Graves Project open source ↗
-
The War in Angola
open source ↗
War In Angola Roll of Honour (warinangola.com, tabid=1175), pages 129-131 of 143: confirmed, no changes.
Stories 1
James was one of the nicest guys at Buffalo, he always had a smile on his face. I was not present at the incident but about five kilometers away and heard gunshots and radio communications. The bats who were in our area, and were obviously not adequately informed as to our presence, came across Jame's platoon and opened fire assuming they were enemy (being black troops) James tore his shirt open and stood up facing the oncoming fire to indicate they were not enemy and took four bullets to the chest. By laying low he may have saved his own life at the cost of his troops, I believe James's actions epitomizes what 32BN was really about.
Dedications 1
James - jou afwesigheid word sterk gevoel. Groot partytjies deurgewerk op Buffalo. Jou dood was so onnodig. Rus in vrede.