Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3609 Private Thomas Benjamin Shaw, 24th Battalion from Collingwood, Victoria. A 22 year old brass finisher prior to enlisting on 22 July 1915, he embarked for overseas with the 8th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 5 January 1916 aboard HMAT Afric. On arrival in Egypt, he transferred to the 8th Battalion and then to the 14th Battalion and embarked with the latter to the Western Front. He was killed in action near Armentieres, France on 3 July 1916 and is buried in the Brewery Orchard Cemetery, Bois-Grenier, France. His brother, 4789 Private Joseph Shaw served with the 21st Battalion on the Western Front and returned to Australia in April 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 unit name, for each negative. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks.