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Schonborn , Gustav Carl (G C)

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Photo of Schonborn Photo of Schonborn
Identity
Person No.
32835
Service No.
77414357BT
Last Name
Schonborn 1
First Name
Gustav Carl
Initials
G C
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
1961 (±1 yr) 382
Age at Death
22
Death Record
Date of Death
21 December 1983 98
Cause code
MVA 2,660
Motor vehicle accident
Cause of Death
Died in motor vehicle accident 1,764
Died in Military Vehicle Accident, military vehicle accidentally drove over him in very dusty conditions with poor visibility during anti-insurgent follow-up operations in Southern Angola
Military Service
Branch
Army
Rank
Rifleman
Regiment
South African Commandos 98
Corps
South African Infantry Corps 10,347
Unit
University OFS Commando 1
Defence Force
SADF 3,874
South African Defence Force
Location
Country
South Africa 23,879
Locality
Northern Cape 808
Cemetery
UPINGTON (KEIDEBEES) CEMETERY 12
Grave Reference
E1 1
Unit History
Role at time of death
Infantry (area defence)
Status
Commando (Area Bound Reserve)
Part of
SADF Commando System category
Part of
Group 35
Generic Regiment-field text used across hundreds of records whose actual unit is a specific local Commando (e.g. Rustenburg Commando, Boksburg Commando -- captured in Unit). Post-WWII, "Commando" is its own force-component category alongside Regular/Permanent Force and Active Citizen Force -- area-bound, part-time reserve units tied to a specific district, mobilised for local counter-insurgency/area protection duties during the Border War era. Not a single regiment; this Status applies to the whole category.
Notes

Son of Mr. and Mrs. G. C. Schonborn, of Upington.

Research notes


14 Sep 2026: Pro Patria Medal added -- database-wide sweep for SADF Border War operational-area deaths within the medal's gazetted window (25 Jun 1976 - 27 Apr 2003), per the warrant's died-before-qualifying-period provision. See PersonAward.Citation for the gazette references.
14 Sep 2026: Pro Patria Medal added earlier today REVERTED -- John obtained the actual Government Gazette (GG 5171/5575); the "died before completing the qualifying period" provision relied on does not exist in the primary text (it was a secondary-source claim). Actual Rule 5 requires (a) combat/enemy-caused incident, (b) a Ministerially-acknowledged operation (clasp), or (c) 55+ continuous/90+ non-continuous days in an operational area -- none of which this record's cause of death clearly demonstrates.
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
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Dedications 1
on 15 March 2003 · via source
Pte.John Welsford my grandfather Guy (Welsford) Gilchrist