Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Portrait of Asley, Depot, or J H Dalley, possibly wearing a militia uniform. If it is Dalley, it is possibly Second Lieutenant (2nd Lt) John Bede Polding Dalley who had served in the 12th Battery, Australian Field Artillery. In civilian life Dalley was initially a barrister but after a fall from a horse he suffered from deafness. He became a journalist and novelist. He attempted several times to enlist in the AIF but was rejected due to his deafness. He finally convinced authorities to allow him to serve and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Australian Field Artillery in March 1915. Promoted to Lieutenant he embarked with the 2nd Divisional Ammunition Column from Melbourne aboard HMAT Port Macquarie (A39) on 16 November 1915. In 1916 Lieutenant (Lt) Dalley suffered from paratyphoid. It was recommended that he be discharged as permanently unfit. He was invalided back to Australia in May 1916 but re-embarked with the 4th Reinforcements, 7th Field Artillery Brigade, from Sydney aboard HMAT Aeneas (A60) on 30 September 1916. He was invalided back to Australia late in 1918. During his service he defended soldiers at courts martial and wrote for the Aussie AIF monthly publication. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had a concession 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks.