Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4385 Private (Pte) Bernard James O’Brien. An orchardist from Cygnet, Tasmania prior to enlistment Pte O’Brien embarked with the 13th Reinforcements, 15th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Demosthenes on 29 December 1915. Following his arrival in the Middle East he was hospitalised suffering from mumps and, after recovering, was re-admitted suffering from bronchitis. Later joining his battalion in France he was promoted to Lance Corporal and was awarded the Military Medal for repeatedly carrying supplies to a captured enemy trench while under heavy artillery barrages. He was later promoted to Sergeant and for a while was appointed as Acting Company Sergeant Major. Later reverting to Sergeant he was wounded in action and on 29 March 1918, aged 27, he succumbed to his wounds and was buried in the Foncquevillers Military Cemetery, Arras, France. 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.