Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 7454 Private (Pte) Archibald John Brien, 7th Battalion. A farmer of Croydon, Victoria prior to enlistment, he embarked from Melbourne on HMAT Themistocles on 4 August 1917 for Glasgow, Scotland. Following training in England, he joined his unit on the Western Front, France, on 10 February 1918. Pte Brien was killed in action near Strazeele, France, on 6-7 June 1916 and was buried in the Borre British Cemetery, France. He was aged 20 years. 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.