Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Group portrait including 3025 Private (Pte) William Shelley Harris, 6th Battalion (most probably centre). A carpenter from Kangaroo Ground, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Harris had previously served with the 3rd Bushman's Contingent during the Boer War and embarked with the 10th Reinforcements from Melbourne on RMS Osterley on 29 September 1915. Later promoted to Corporal, he was found to be overage and this, combined with general debility, led to him returning to Australia on 26 September 1917 where he was medically discharged. 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 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.