Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 6017 Private (Pte) John Blair Edwards, 14th Battalion who was a 24 year old labourer from Hawkesdale, Victoria when he enlisted and embarked for overseas with the 19th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 1 August 1916 aboard HMAT Miltiades. He served with the 14th Battalion in France and Belgium and was killed in action on 15 October 1917 near Broodseinde, Belgium. Pte Edward's name is inscribed on the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres, Belgium, along with the names of others who have no known grave. [See also image DA15717.] 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 1930's, 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.