Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of W H Adams, probably Major (Maj) William Affleck Adams, 3rd Pioneer Battalion. A native of Glasgow, Scotland, Maj Adams was an engineer from Hawthorn, Vic prior to enlistment and embarked with A Company from Melbourne on HMAT Wandilla on 6 June 1916. Whilst serving on the Western Front he was Mentioned in Despatches and later awarded the Distinguished Service Order for distinguished service in the field. On 15 October 1917, aged 48, he was killed in action and was buried in the Ypres Reservoir Cemetery, Belgium. 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.