Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4524 Private (Pte) William James Jeffers. A labourer from Camperdown, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Jeffers embarked along with his brothers 4523 Pte Ralph Henry Jeffers and 4522 Pte Roy Ernest Jeffers with the 14th Reinforcements, 6th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Themistocles on 28 January 1916. On 11 November 1916, aged 24, he was killed in action and having no known grave he is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. Pte Roy Jeffers was killed in action on 19 August 1916 (See DA13256). Pte Ralph Jeffers was appointed as Lance Corporal and returned to Australia on compassionate grounds on 27 September 1917. A fourth brother, 5699 Pte George Gordon Jeffers also served and returned to Australia on 16 May 1919 however he was so badly traumatised that he committed suicide on 9th August 1919. 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.