Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of Lieutenant (Lt) Joseph William Forbes, 6th Battalion. An accountant from Melbourne, Vic prior to enlistment, Lt Forbes embarked with the 11th Reinforcements from Melbourne aboard HMAT Nestor on 11 October 1915. He was subsequently Mentioned in Despatches for "distinguished and gallant service and devotion to duty in the field". He was killed in action on 20 September 1917 at Ypres, Belgium, aged 26 and was buried in the Perth Cemetery (China Wall), Belgium. His brother Lt Muirton Warrand Forbes, 2nd Battalion, was also killed in action. 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.