Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 1604 Private (Pte) Benjamin Patrick Rodda, 31st Battalion and an unidentified soldier (positions unknown). A fireman from Kensington, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Rodda embarked with the 1st Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Bakara on 5 November 1915. Whilst serving in France he was wounded in action near Fleurbaix and evacuated to hospital. On 26 July 1916, aged 32, he succumbed to his wounds and was buried in the French Souvenir Cemetery, St Omer, France. His brother Pte Arnold Edward Rodda died whilst undergoing training at Seymour. 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.