Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 2622 Private (Pte) William Duncan. A labourer from North Fitzroy, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Duncan had been previously been rejected due to bad teeth. Following his successful enlistment he embarked with the 6th Reinforcements, 23rd Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Ulysses on 27 October 1915. Later transferring to the 58th Battalion he was posted as missing in action. A subsequent court of enquiry determined that he had been killed in action on 19 July 1916, aged 27. Having no known grave he is commemorated on the VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial, Fromelles, France. 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.