Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Accession Number DA12244
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Glass original half plate negative
Maker Darge Photographic Company
Place made Australia: Victoria, Melbourne, Broadmeadows
Date made c 16 November 1915
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Studio portrait of 3710 Private (Pte) Francis Edmund Bilton (note the cat curled up in the corner). Originally from Timaru, New Zealand, Pte Bilton was a farmer from Upper Hawthorn, Victoria prior to enlistment and embarked with the 12th Reinforcements, 5th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Ceramic on 23 November 1915. Later wounded in the forearm he was evacuated to hospital. Following his recovery he re-joined his battalion and was subsequently evacuated to England suffering from trench fever. Later suffering from deafness and general debility he returned to Australia on 27 August 1917 and was medically discharged. 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.

Related information