Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 2834 Private (Pte) Frank Renald Buckle, 24th Battalion. A butcher's assistant from Merino, Victoria, prior to enlistment on 2 August 1915 he embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT Ulysses on 27 October 1915 for Suez. His unit relocated to the Western Front, France, during March 1916. He was hospitalised due to illness during June 1916 and rejoined his unit in early July. Pte Buckle was killed in action at Pozieres, France, on 29 July 1916. He was aged 20 years. His older brother, 1231 Pte Reginald George Buckle, 39th Battalion, died of wounds received in action near Amiens, France, on 13 July 1918. 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 a unit name, for each negative.