Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4904 Private (Pte) Thomas James Ward. A farmer from Fawkner, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Ward embarked with the 13th Reinforcements, 29th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Suevic on 21 June 1917. Later serving with the 38th Battalion, he returned to Australia on 4 July 1919. 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. See also DA17960.