Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of two soldiers of the 7th Battalion who embarked for overseas together with the 16th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 1 April 1916 aboard HMAT Suffolk. Identified on the left is 5105 Private (Pte) Robert Thomas Heard from Bendigo, Victoria who was a 26 year old labourer prior to enlisting on 24 January 1916. He served on the Western Front with the 59th and the 57th Battalions and was killed in action on 21 March 1918 near Messines, Belgium. Pte Heard is buried in the La Plus Douve Farm Cemetery, Belgium. On the right is 5226 Pte Charence Godfrey Wallis from Horsham, Victoria who was an 18 year old farm labourer prior to enlisting on 31 January 1916. He served on the Western Front with the 59th, 65th and 57th Battalions and was wounded in action on 6 March 1918 near Messines. After being evacuated to England for medical treatment, he returned to his unit in France and then at the end of hostilities returned to Australia on 28 June 1919. 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.