Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Portrait of Lieutenant (Lt) R P Whalley, 46th Infantry, wearing a 46th Infantry (Brighton Rifles) collar badge. It is probably Rupert Percy Whalley who was a member of the 46th Infantry (militia unit). A builder and contractor from Sandringham, Victoria, prior to enlistment, Whalley embarked as a Private (service number 6094) with the 19th Reinforcements, 7th Battalion, from Melbourne aboard HMAT Themistocles (A32) on 28 July 1916. During his service he was promoted to Lieutenant. In 1918 he received gun shot wounds to the mouth. While in England in 1919, Whalley was granted leave to attend a building course. He returned to Australia late in 1919. Whalley served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Second World War. 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks. See also DA12565 and DA12415.