Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of Cpl J Perring, probably 2421 Private (Pte) John Joseph Collins Perring, 2nd Pioneer Battalion. A native of Uitenhage, South Africa, Pte Perring was a ventriloquist from North Fitzroy prior to his enlistment on 3 August 1915. Initially posted to the 12th Reinforcements, 6th Battalion, he was hospitalised prior to embarkation and subsequently posted to the 2nd Pioneer Battalion where he embarked with the 4th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Themistocles on 28 July 1916. Whilst in England he contracted malaria and returned to Australia on 21 March 1918. On his return to Australia he was diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis and was hospitalised. He subsequently died on 3 May 1920 and was buried in the Rookwood Cemetery. 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.