Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Copy of a portrait of Lieutenant (Lt) Keith Heritage. Originally from Tasmania, Keith Heritage worked as a traffic manager with the Union Steamship Company in Sydney. He represented Tasmania then NSW in rowing. According to a report by the Department of Defence in 1920, Keith Heritage was the first man to volunteer for the new Australian force to be sent in aid of Britain's war effort. He was commissioned into the Australian Naval and Military Force and sent to New Guinea within days of his enlistment to take part in the capture of German colonies in the South Pacific. After he had returned to Sydney, Keith Heritage enlisted in the AIF. He embarked from Sydney with the 2nd Reinforcements, 19th Battalion, aboard HMAT Kanowna (A61) on 19 June 1916. During his service Lt Heritage was promoted to Captain and awarded the Military Cross (MC) for "conspicuous gallantry during a raid on the enemy's trenches. About twenty of the enemy were killed and four prisoners taken. He carried back a wounded man single-handed, and throughout the raid set a fine example of cool courage." Captain Heritage was killed in action at Pozieres, France, on 26 July 1916. 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks.