Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Outdoor portrait of two Australian soldiers on camels in front of the Sphinx in Egypt. Identified on the left is 152 Corporal Stanley Keith Muir, 4th Light Horse Regiment (LHR) from Jolimont, Victoria. A 22 year old station overseer prior to enlisting on 18 August 1914, he embarked for overseas as a Private with A Squadron from Melbourne on 19 October 1914 aboard HMAT Wiltshire (A19). Following further training in Egypt, the 4th LHR landed at Gallipoli on 22 and 24 May. After being promoted to Corporal on 13 August 1915, Muir was evacuated to Malta with enteric fever on 31 August and was later transferred to London for further medical treatment. On 17 November 1915, he was discharged from the AIF having been granted a commission in the Imperial Army in the 20th Kings Royal Rifle Corps. He later joined the Royal Flying Corps serving in Egypt as an instructor to an Australian squadron. During this time he won the Military Cross for his fighting during a bombing raid in which he brought down two enemy aircraft. He returned to England to train an Australian squadron for service on the Western Front but was killed in an aircraft accident at Harlaxton on 12 September 1917 at the age of 25. He is buried in the SS. Mary and Peter Churchyard, Harlaxton, Lincolnshire, UK. The Next of Kin plaque sent to his family is held by the Australian War Memorial [See image REL29102]. The soldier on the right is unidentified. He is wearing medal ribbons, probably from the Boer War. Handwritten on the face of the image is “To Ada from your aff brother Stan.” This image was copied by the Darge Photographic Company in Melbourne. 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.