Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait probably of 2336 Private (Pte) William George Bull, 24th Battalion. A labourer from Strathdownie, Victoria, prior to enlistment he embarked from Melbourne on 29 September 1915 aboard RMS Osterley for Egypt. Shortly after arrival he was hospitalised for diphtheria and then followed his battalion to France during March 1916 where he was taken on strength of the Entrenching Battalion on 25 June 1916. Five weeks later he was transferred to the 4th Battalion. Pte Bull was wounded in action on two occasions, firstly on 5 August 1916 and again on 15 April 1918; on both occasions he was evacuated to England for treatment and recuperation. He rejoined 24th Battalion in France on 21 August 1918 and was wounded in action a third time and died of these wounds 2 days later on 3 September 1918 in 9 General Hospital, Rouen, France. He was aged 24years. 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