Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of J J McCarty, believed to be 1053 Private (Pte) John James McCarty, 8th Light Horse Regiment from Neerim, Victoria. A 25 year old labourer prior to enlisting on 6 July 1915, he embarked for overseas with the 7th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 23 September 1915 aboard HMAT Malakuta (A57). After falling ill, he left Egypt in January 1916 to return to Australia. He re-embarked with the 16th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 2 May 1916 aboard HMAT Uganda (A66). On returning to Egypt, he served with the Imperial Camel Corps and then the 3rd Light Horse Regiment before transferring to the 15th Light Horse Regiment. Pte McCarty died of pneumonia and malaria at the 19th General Hospital in Alexandria on 4 November 1918 and was buried in the Hadra War Memorial Cemetery, Alexandria, Egypt. 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.