Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 6479 Private (Pte) Walter Ditchfield, 5th Battalion from Castlemain, Victoria. A 19 year old storekeeper's assistant prior to enlisting on 24 July 1916, he embarked of overseas with the 21st Reinforcements from Melbourne on 2 October 1916 aboard HMAT Nestor (A71). Following further training in England, he proceeded to France where he joined the 5th Battalion on 4 March 1917. Pte Ditchfield died on 29 April 1917 of wounds received in action and was buried in the Morchies Military Cemetery near Bapaume, France. [See also image DA16328.] 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.