Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Group portrait of 3900 Private (Pte) Albert Archie Rapsey and two unidentified soldiers (position unknown). A farmer from Wodonga, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Rapsey embarked with the 12th Reinforcements, 8th Battalion from Adelaide on HMAT Ceramic on 23 November 1915. Later suffering from influenza he was admitted to hospital. Following his recovery he re-joined his battalion and was posted as wounded and missing in action. A subsequent court of enquiry determined that he had been killed in action on 18 August 1916 at Pozieres. Having no known grave he is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. His brother 10334 Driver Charles Allan Rapsey also served in the AIF. 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.