Patterson , William Henry (W H)

16 Sep 2026, ServiceNo contamination sweep: the stored ServiceNo 'P2/8447' was CLEARED. It was not a reading of this man's record. PersonNumbers 32438 to 32439 -- 2 consecutive records -- all carried the identical number, which belongs to the record at the head of that run (32438, Patterson, Willem Daniel (W D)). 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.
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".
25 Sep 2026, squadron link check: the stored Unit "2 Squadron" was CLEARED. This man is a sergeant major of the South African Ordnance Services Corps who died on 1 May 1933. PersonNumber 32438, immediately above and of the same surname, is Corporal Willem Patterson whose Regiment is 2 Squadron, South African Air Force -- the value is his. 2 Squadron SAAF was not formed until 1 October 1940, seven years after this man died. No replacement is guessed.