Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3920 Sapper John Malady, No 5 Tunnelling Company who was a 29 year old labourer from Port Fairy, Victoria when he enlisted and embarked for overseas from Melbourne on 25 May 1916 aboard HMAT Warilda. While serving in France with the 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company, he suffered several bouts of pleurisy before returning to Australia on 5 September 1919. He had previously enlisted on 27 August 1914 (service number 961) and embarked for overseas with the 8th Battalion from Melbourne on 19 October 1914 aboard HMAT Benalla. While serving in Egypt, he was taken ill, returned to Australia and discharged medically unfit on 8 November 1915. 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 1930's, 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.