Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3989 Private William Roy Locke, 7th Battalion from Tongala, Victoria. A 20 year old baker prior to enlisting in the AIF on 29 July 1915, he embarked for overseas with the 12th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 23 November 1915 aboard HMAT Ceramic. While serving with the 57th Battalion, he was promoted to Lance Corporal on 13 July 1916 and to Corporal (Cpl) on 20 July 1916. Cpl Locke was killed in action on 19 August 1916 and is buried in the Rue-du-Bois Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix, 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 1930's 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 a unit name, for each negative.