Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3203 Private (Pte) John McMahon, 22nd Battalion. A labourer from Caulfield, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte McMahon embarked along with his brother 3202 Pte James McMahon with the 7th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Commonwealth on 26 November 1915. Later transferring to the 57th Battalion, he was reported as wounded and missing in action. It was later determined that he had been killed in action on 24 April 1918, aged 33, and, having no known grave, he is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. Pte James McMahon was killed in action on 24 July 1916. A portrait of both brothers is at P06402.001. 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. See also P06402.001.