Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4741 Private (Pte) James Neil Brown, 14th Battalion. A labourer from Avoca, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Brown embarked with the 15th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Anchises on 14 March 1916. Later transferring to the 46th Battalion he was promoted to Lance Corporal and wounded in action. On 7 September, aged 20, he succumbed to his wounds and was buried in the Wimereux Communal Cemetery, France. His brother 1799 Pte John Alexander Brown was killed in action on 8 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.