Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4558 Private (Pte) John James O’Brien. A contractor from Bendigo, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte O’Brien embarked along with his brother 4557 Pte Edward Charles O’Brien with the 14th Reinforcements, 7th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Themistocles on 28 January 1916. He was later hospitalised on several occasions suffering from rheumatism, myalgia, trench foot and mumps. He served briefly with the 59th Battalion before transferring to the 57th Battalion. On 27 September 1917 he was killed in action in Belgium. Having no known grave he is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium. Pte Edward O’Brien returned to Australia on 16 March 1919. . This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had a permit 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.