Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 6049 Private (Pte) William George Lawrence, 6th Battalion. Originally from Surrey, England, Pte Lawrence was a labourer from North Melbourne prior to enlistment and embarked with the 19th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Themistocles on 28 July 1916. Later transferring to the 14th Battalion with the number 6049A, he was posted as missing in action. It was later determined that he had been taken as prisoner of war and was interned in Germany. Following the Armistice, he was repatriated to England and returned to Australia on 22 August 1919. 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