Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Group portrait including 6879A Private (Pte) Ludwig Wickham Schrader (position unknown) A warehouseman from Tanunda, SA prior to enlistment, Pte Schrader had initially served as a Driver with the Royal Australian Navy Bridging Train at Swan Island before transferring to the AIF after his unit was disbanded. He embarked for overseas service with the 20th Reinforcements, 24th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Nestor on 21 November 1917. Later wounded in action he was evacuated to the 47th Casualty Clearing Station where, on 8 August 1918, aged 20, he succumbed to his wounds and was buried in the Crouy British Cemetery, 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.