Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3798 Private (Pte) Edward Kershaw. A labourer from Middle Brighton, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Kershaw had previously been discharged for refusing inoculation. Later re-enlisting he embarked for overseas service with the 12th Reinforcements, 7th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Ceramic on 23 November 1915. After arriving in Cairo he was hospitalised suffering from influenza. Following his recovery he proceeded to England before re-joining his battalion in France. Later suffering from granular conjunctivitis he was invalided to England. After recovering he re-joined his battalion and on 4 October 1917 aged 34, he was killed in action in Belgium. Having no known grave he is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium. 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. See also DA12560.