Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 1894 Private Thomas Ernest Dudley (left) and 1928 Pte Arthur Desmond Kerr, both of Kogarah, NSW. Both men embarked with the 3rd Reinforcements, 59th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Port Lincoln on 4 May 1916. Pte Dudley, a bottler prior to enlistment later transferred to the 57th Battalion and was killed in action on 25 February 1918, aged 20. He was buried in the La Plus Douve Farm Cemetery, Belgium. Pte Kerr , a packer prior to enlistment, returned to Australia on 19 April 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.