Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 1816 Private (Pte) Thomas Main Chalmers, 38th Battalion. A farmer from Mysia, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Chalmers embarked along with his brother 1815 Pte Peter Chalmers with the 2nd Reinforcements from Melbourne on RMS Orontes on 16 August 1916. Whilst serving as stretcher bearers in Belgium, the brothers were both awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous gallantry. Later wounded in action, Pte Thomas Chalmers returned to Australia on 15 April 1918 and was medically discharged. Pte Peter Chalmers was killed in action on 21 October 1917. A third brother, 2598A Pte David Alexander Chalmers, 7th Battalion, was killed in action on 20 August 1916. 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.