Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 1548 Private (Pte) John Samuel Thompson Rigby, 23rd Battalion. A sawmiller from Telangatuk East, Vic prior to enlistment, Pte Rigby embarked with the 1st Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Euripides on 8 May 1915. After serving at Gallipoli he was transferred to the 6th Light Trench Mortar Battery and promoted to Corporal and awarded the Military Medal. The citation reads in part "He has been conspicuous for his cool gallantry throughout this action as was the case in the 'Southland' and at Armentieres." Later attached to the 21st Infantry Battalion, he was promoted to Lieutenant and was killed in action on 4 October 1917, aged 29. Originally buried at Sunken Road, Belgium, his remains could not be recovered following the Armistice and he is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial. His brother, Lieutenant Frank Rigby, also of the 21st Battalion was killed on the same day. 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.