Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 2908 Private (Pte) John Womersley (also known as Jack Womersley), 14th Battalion. An engine driver from Dunkeld, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Womersley embarked with the 9th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Hororata on 27 September 1915. Later transferring to the 46th Battalion, he was promoted to Lance Corporal. On 16 July 1917, aged 20, he was killed in action and was buried in the Underhill Farm Cemetery, Ploegsteert, Hainaut, Belgium. His brother, 480 Pte Thorald Womersley, died of wounds on 13 June 1916. 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.