Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 1956 Private (Pte) William Kirby, 29th Battalion. A farm labourer from Rochester, Victoria prior to enlistment and originally from Ipswich, England, Pte Kirby embarked from Melbourne with the 7th Reinforcements on HMAT Ajana on 8 July 1916. Later transferring to the 57th Battalion, he was wounded in action and, on 2 April 1917, he succumbed to his wounds and was buried in the Pozieres British Cemetery, Ovillers-La Boisselle, France. 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.