Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

A copy portrait of 4458 Private James Checkley ordered by his mother, Mrs Checkley after his death. The portrait was copied from a group portrait of the 14th Reinforcements, 14th Battalion taken in December 1915 at Broadmeadows Camp (DAX2594). A labourer from Inverloch, Victoria, James Checkley embarked from Melbourne with the 14th Reinforcements, 14th Battalion, aboard HMAT Ballarat (A70) on 18 February 1916. He was killed in action in Belgium on 5 July 1917. 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. The notebooks contain brief details, usually a surname or unit name, for each negative. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks.