Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3022 Private (Pte) William Frederick Biggs, 22nd Battalion. A fireman from St Kilda, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Biggs embarked with the 7th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Commonwealth on 26 November 1916. Later transferring to the 57th Battalion and then to the 59th Battalion, he was posted as missing in action in France. A subsequent court of enquiry determined that he had been killed in action on 19 July 1916. He is commemorated on the VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial, Fromelles, France. 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.