Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 1974 Private (Pte) Ernest Ottoff Brutton, 31st Battalion. Originally from Riga, Russia, Pte Brutton was a seaman based in Sydney prior to enlistment and embarked with the 3rd Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Ballarat on 19 February 1916.After transferring to the 5th Divisional Ammunition Column with the rank of Gunner, then to the 3rd Field Artillery Brigade, he was gassed. Later developing renal problems, he returned to Australia on 23 September 1918. 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.