Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3310 Private (Pte) Rupert Birrell. A storeman from Goodwood, SA prior to enlistment, Pte Birrell embarked with the service number 1403 with the 2nd Reinforcements, 16th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Clan McGillivray on 2 Feb 1915. While in Egypt he became ill and returned to Australia for treatment. He subsequently re-embarked for overseas service with the 7th Reinforcements, 21st Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Wiltshire on 18 November 1915. Later serving with the 57th Battalion he was admitted to hospital suffering from scalded feet. After re-joining his battalion he was sentenced to 18 months hard labour for sleeping while on sentry duty. This was later remitted to 6 months and on the expiration of his sentence he again re-joined his battalion. On 25 April 1918, aged 21, he was killed in action and, having no known grave, is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had a permit to take photographs at the Broadmeadows and Seymour army camps during the First World War. In the 1930s, the Australian War Memorial purchased the original glass negatives from Algernon Darge, along with the photographers' notebooks. The notebooks contain brief details, usually a surname or unit name, for each negative.