Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 6912A Private (Pte) Joseph Mooney. A labourer from Bairnsdale, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Mooney had previously enlisted on 12 September 1914 but had been declared a deserter. He was later able to re-enlist and embarked with the 20th Reinforcements, 23rd Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Nestor on 21 November 1917. Constantly absent without leave he was eventually charged with desertion but this was later downgraded to illegal absence. Following the Armistice he got married in England and he and his wife returned to Australia on 16 April 1920. 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.