Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 438 Driver William Annesley Campbell, No 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps from Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. A 24 year old telephone mechanic prior to enlisting on 3 May 1916, he embarked for overseas with the Wagon Section, 1st Reinforcements from Melbourne on 30 May 1916 aboard RMS Morea. He disembarked in Basrah and served in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) and Egypt before arriving back in Australia on 17 April 1919. 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.