Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of E N Pinney and an unknown soldier. The soldier on the right is probably 4288 Private (Pte) Edward Norman Pinney, 14th Battalion from Ballarat, Victoria. A 23 year old compositor prior to enlisting on 20 July 1915, he embarked for overseas with the 13th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 29 December 1915 aboard HMAT Demosthenes (A64). After arriving in Egypt, he joined the 14th Battalion and proceeded to France with them in June 1916. Pte Pinney was killed in action at Pozieres, France on 8 August 1916 and is commemorated on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, France with others who have no known grave. His younger brother, 4281 Pte Frederick James Pinney enlisted eleven days before Edward and they embarked together. Frederick Pinney served on the Western Front and arrived back in Australia on 18 May 1919. [See also image DAODS00284.] 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.