Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 5196 Private (Pte) Phillip King Smith, 6th Battalion, holding what appears to be a sugar glider marsupial. A school teacher from Durham Ox, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Smith embarked with the 16th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Suffolk on 1 April 1916. Later transferring to the 57th Battalion he was wounded in action and evacuated to England. Following his recovery he joined the 60th Battalion and was wounded in action for the second occasion. Once again evacuated to England, he was still recovering when the Armistice was declared and returned to Australia on 9 February 1919. 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.See also DA14806.