Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 6819A Private (Pte) William John Jennings. An iron worker from Ascot Vale, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Jennings had initially enlisted on 24 July 1915 but had been discharged as his services were required as a munitions worker. Later granted Government permission to re-enlist he embarked with the 20th Reinforcements, 24th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Nestor on 21 November 1917. On 14 June 1916, aged 24, he was killed in action and interred in the Hertly No.2 Military Cemetery. His remains were subsequently exhumed and re-interred in the Ribemont Community Cemetery Extension, Picardie, France. 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.