Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4492 Private (Pte) Abraham Jacob Elson, 12th Battalion. A labourer from Ulverstone, Tas prior to enlistment, Pte Elson embarked with the 14th Reinforcements from Melbourne aboard HMAT Warilda on 8 February 1916. After transferring to 52nd Battalion and being promoted to Lance Corporal he was killed in action in the Ypres area on 19 October 1917 aged 20, and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial. 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 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.