Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Group portrait including 4437 Private (Pte) Fred Charles Grimster (position unknown). Originally from London, England, Pte Grimster was a farm hand from Leederville, WA prior to enlistment and embarked with the 12th Reinforcements, 2nd Pioneer Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Aeneas on 30 October 1917. Later posted to the 32nd Battalion and then the 48th Battalion, he was listed as wounded and missing in action. It was subsequently determined that he had been killed in action on 3 May 1918 and having no known grave is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. 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. See also DA18655.