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Natal Command

South African Army military command

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ18379322
Source-derived summary

Natal Command was a Command of the South African Army. It was headquartered in Durban, South Africa. By the 1980s, it was responsible for the security of the region, forming the primary level of command for military operations in support of the Police. It also provided logistic, administrative and service support to units and formations operating in its area of responsibility.

History

Origin

Union Defence Force

Under the Union Defence Force, South Africa was originally divided into 9 military districts. Lieutenant Colonel J. Daniel was Officer Commanding on 3 September 1939. The command included the 1st South African Brigade at Pietermaritzburg with two battalions of the Royal Natal Carabineers and the Umvoti Mounted Rifles, the 7th South African Infantry Brigade (including the Natal Mounted Rifles), two batteries of the South African Permanent Garrison Artillery, and the Natal Field Artillery on 3 September 1939.

Brigadiers Harold Willmott and Deon Ferreira served as officers commanding Natal Command after the Second World War.

SADF

From August 1974 84 Motorised Brigade was based at the Old Fort Road Military Base in Durban. While the brigade was part of 8th South African Armoured Division rather than Natal Command, its units were mostly located within the command's boundaries.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Natal Command” is south African Army military command. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Natal, Command and South, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1939, 1974—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Natal, Command and South is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “south African Army military command” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18379322. Authority coordinates are -29.839, 31.035. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939 and 1974.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Natal Command”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Natal Command primary sources, Natal Command archive and Natal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Natal Command” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.