Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4932 Private (Pte) John Alfred Walker, 7th Battalion. A labourer from Murumbeena, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Walker embarked with the 15th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Wiltshire on 7 March 1916. Later transferring to the 4th Divisional Ammunition Column, he was evacuated to England suffering from bronchial pneumonia.Later re-mustered as a Driver, he joined the 11th Field Artillery Brigade and returned to Australia on 1 May 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.