Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 253 Private Ernest John Churchman Withers, 4th Machine Gun Company, an 18 year old clerk from South Grafton, NSW when he enlisted on 30 August 1915. He embarked for overseas with the 2nd Reinforcements of the 1st Pioneer Battalion from Sydney on 14 April 1916 aboard HMAT Ceramic and with the service number of 1967. He then transferred to the 4th Machine Gun Company and was given the new service number of 253 and embarked with the 3rd Reinforcements from Fremantle on 18 July 1916 aboard HMAT Seang Bee. While serving with the 4th Machine Gun Company in France he was killed in action on 4 May 1918 and is buried in the Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery, 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 unit name, for each negative.