Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3247 Private (Pte) John Rickard. A farmer from Navarre, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Rickard embarked with the 7th Reinforcements, 24th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Commonwealth on 26 November 1915. Later transferring to the 8th Battalion he was wounded in the face and evacuated to England. Following his recovery he rejoined his unit and was promoted to Lance Corporal and was wounded in action for the second occasion and was again evacuated to England. Following his recovery he once again rejoined his battalion and on 13 August 1918, aged 28, he was killed in action 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 a permit 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 DA12697.