Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3029 Private (Pte) Charles Beer, 23rd Battalion, a 29 year old labourer from Avoca, Victoria when he enlisted and embarked for overseas with the 7th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 26 November 1915 aboard HMAT Commonwealth. In February 1916 he transferred to the 58th Battalion in Egypt and from June 1916 served with that battalion on the Western Front until he was killed in action on 27 March 1918 at St Pol, France. Pte Beer is buried in the St Pol British Cemetery, St Pol-sur-Ternoise, France. [See also image DASEY2592] 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 1930's 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 a unit name, for each negative. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks.