Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of two Australian soldiers recorded as W Baird and T G Riley. One is 5994 Private (Pte) William John Baird, 14th Battalion from Garvoc, Victoria (position not known). A 23 year old grocer's driver prior to enlisting on 12 April 1916, he embarked for overseas with the 19th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 1 August 1916 aboard HMAT Miltiades. After further training in England, he joined the 14th Battalion in France in December 1916. He was wounded in action in Belgium on 5 July 1917 and evacuated to England for medical treatment. After recovering from his wounds, he returned to the 14th Battalion in France in November 1917 and returned to Australia on 5 August 1919. The other soldier is 6091 Pte Thomas Gordon James Riley, also of the 14th Battalion from Caramut, Victoria. He embarked with the same group as Pte Baird and also joined the 14th Battalion in France in December 1916. He was killed in action near Noreuil, France on 11 April 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.