Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of W Copeland, possibly 2345 Private (Pte) William Thomas Copeland, 21st Battalion. A farm labourer from Abbotsford, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Copeland embarked with the 5th Reinforcements from Melbourne on RMS Osterley on 29 September 1915. Initially posted as wounded and missing in action, a subsequent court of enquiry determined that he had been killed in action, aged 22, on 26 August 1916 at Mouquet Farm, Pozieres, France. 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 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.