Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Group portrait of farriers of the Army Service Corps (ASC). Identified, probably left to right, are Ludeman, Roofe and Frewen. They are probably 10775 Shoeing Smith Albert Ludemann, a blacksmith from Bendigo, Victoria; 22279 Shoeing Smith Thomas William Roofe, a blacksmith from Lal Lal, Victoria; and 10850 Shoeing Smith Gordon Frewin, a blacksmith from Footscray, Victoria. Ludemann and Frewin embarked from Melbourne with the 22nd Company, 3rd Divisional Train, ASC, aboard HMAT Persic (A34) on 3 June 1916. From 14 Dec 1915 to 25 Mar 1916 Roofe served as a farrier with 3rd Divisional Train, ASC, before transferring to the Artillery. He embarked from Melbourne with Battery 109, 23rd Howitzer Brigade, aboard HMAT Medic (A7) on 20 May 1916. All three servicemen survived the war. 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks.