Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 2474 Private (Pte) John Lawrence Fitzgerald, 21st Battalion. A farm labourer from Iona, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Fitzgerald embarked with the 5th Reinforcements from Melbourne on RMS Osterley on 29 September 1915. Later transferring to the 59th Battalion, he was killed in action on 19 July 1916, aged 25, and was buried in the VC Corner, Australian Cemetery and Memorial, Fromelles, France. His brother 3312 Lance Corporal Daniel Fitzgerald, also 59th Battalion, died of wounds on 5 October 1917. See also DA10861. 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.