Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of two brothers, 1536 Private (Pte) Edward John Francis (seated) and 1537 Pte Frank Lindsay Francis both of the 21st Battalion. Pte Edward Francis, a tentmaker from Upper Hawthorn, Vic prior to enlistment and Pte Frank Francis a motor driver also from Upper Hawthorn, Vic both embarked with the 1st Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Berrima on 28 June 1915. On 30 July 1916, both men were killed in action at Pozieres, France and are commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. 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.