Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3712 Private (Pte) James Blakeley and an unidentified soldier (position unknown). Originally from Larkhall, Scotland, Pte Blakeley was a coach painter from Seddon, Victoria prior to enlistment, and embarked with the 12th Reinforcements, 5th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Ceramic on 23 November 1915. Later posted as missing in action, a subsequent court of enquiry determined that he had been killed in action on 25 July 1916, aged 21. Having no known grave he is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. 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.