Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 2699 Private (Pte) Joseph Bellesini, tailor, of Eaglehawk, Victoria. Pte Bellesini enlisted in the 7th Battalion on 14 July 1915 and embarked from Melbourne on HMAT Anchises on 26 August 1915. Pte Bellesini was wounded in action at Pozieres, France, on 25 July 1916 and died nine months later on 13 March 1917 at Sussex, England, aged 20 years. Pte Bellesini's two brothers, 2563 Lance Corporal (LCpl) Andrew Bellesini, 22nd Battalion and 562 Pte Harry Bellesini, 7th Battalion, also served with the AIF. LCpl Andrew Bellesini returned to Australia and was discharged on 16 March 1919. Pte Harry Bellesini died of wounds on 18 September 1915 at the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey. 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.