Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of four soldiers, one of whom is listed as J E Wearey who has not been further identified. The soldier standing at the back on the right is believed to be 6237 Private (Pte) Percy Allen Ratcliff, 12th Battalion from Launceston, Tasmania. A 23 year old labourer prior to enlisting on 9 June 1916, he embarked for overseas with the 20th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 24 August 1916 aboard HMAT Botanist. While serving on the Western Front, he was wounded in action near Le Hamel, France on 11 August 1918 and died from those wounds on the same day. Pte Ratcliff is buried in the Daours Communal Cemetery, France. [See image DA16302.] The two soldiers sitting in the front are the same two soldiers in image DA16301. One is believed to be 6254 Private (Pte) Claude Arthur Butler, 12th Battalion from Nook, Tasmania. A 22 year old farmer prior to enlistment, Pte Butler also embarked with the 20th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 24 August 1916 aboard HMAT Botanist. After arriving in England he became ill and, on 26 July 1917, he died from tubercular peritonitis and was buried in the Durrington, Cemetery, Wiltshire, England. The other soldier sitting in front is unidentified. 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.