Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 2726 Private William Bruce Robertson, 57th Battalion from East Brunswick, Victoria. A 44 year old labourer prior to enlisting on 2 August 1916, he embarked for overseas with the 6th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 20 October 1916 aboard HMAT Nestor. He was killed in action near Gueudecourt, France on 13 February 1917 and is commemorated on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, France with others who have no known grave. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had the 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.