Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3535 Private (Pte) Maurice William Gill. A blacksmith from Queenstown, Tasmania prior to enlistment, Pte Gill embarked with the 8th Reinforcements, 22nd Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Afric on 5 January 1916. He later transferred to the 58th Battalion and was hospitalised suffering from blistered feet. After re-joining his battalion he was initially reported as missing in action however a subsequent court of enquiry determined that he had been killed in action on 19 July 1916. Following the Armistice his remains were recovered and interred in the New Irish Farm Cemetery, Ypers, Belgium. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had a 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.