Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 2249 Private Stanley Thurston, 58th Battalion from Benalla, Victoria. A 23 year old labourer prior to enlisting on 24 December 1914, he embarked for overseas with the service number 1821 with the 4th Reinforcements of the 5th Battalion from Melbourne on 14 April 1915 aboard HMAT Wiltshire. While serving at Gallipoli, he was taken ill and evacuated to Mudros and then Egypt for medical treatment. He returned to Australia, arriving on 29 February 1916. He re-embarked with the service number 2249 with the 4th Reinforcements of the 58th Battalion from Melbourne on 1 August 1916 aboard HMAT Orsova. After further training in England, he deployed to France on 6 December 1916 and transferred to the 57th Battalion on 26 August 1917. He was killed in action at Aubigny, France on 26 May 1918 and is buried in the Douars Communal Cemetery Extension, 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks.