Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 1790 Private (Pte) William John Beasley, 38th Battalion. A labourer from Boinka, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Beasley had previously enlisted with the service number of 5038 with the 3rd Light Horse Brigade Train but had been medically discharged. Following his re-enlistment, he embarked with the 2nd Reinforcements, 38th Battalion from Melbourne on RMS Orontes on 16 August 1916. Whilst serving in Belgium he was killed in action on 28 May 1917, aged 27, and having no known grave, he is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. 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.