Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 5775 Private (Pte) John Henry Williams. A labourer from Rushworth, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Williams was originally scheduled to embark for overseas service with the 6th Reinforcements, 29th Battalion but for reasons not stated did not do so. He eventually embarked with the 18th Reinforcements, 8th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Ayrshire on 3 July 1916. Later transferring to the 46th Battalion, he was posted as missing in action. It was subsequently determined that he had been killed in action at Bullecourt on 11 April 1917. Following the Armistice his remains were recovered and re-interred in the Queant Road Cemetery, Buissy, France. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had a 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.