Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 2621 Private (Pte) William Arthur Dowley. A labourer from Mildura, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Dowley embarked with the 6th Reinforcements, 23rd Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Ulysses on 27 October 1915. Later suffering from shell shock he was evacuated to a casualty clearing station. Following his recovery he rejoined his battalion and on 18 November 1916, aged 25, and was buried in the Thistle Dump Cemetery, Picardie, France. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had a permit 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. See also H06399.