Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4084 Private (Pte) William Peter Cochrane or Cockrane, 21st Battalion. A carpenter from Ballarat, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Cochrane embarked with the 10th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Wiltshire on 7 March 1916. Later transferring to the 5th Pioneer Battalion, he was evacuated to England suffering from a hernia. Following his recovery he rejoined his unit before transferring to the 5th Machine Gun Company where he was wounded in action and once again evacuated to England. He returned to Australia on 18 November 1918. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had a 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