Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Visitors mending at Headquarters [Register caption].
Two women are sewing at a mending tent at the Seymour camp. One is Mrs MCall (position unknown). (See DAODS00544 and DAODS00545.) An unidentified soldier is visiting the tent. The women belonged to a patriotic group whose members visited the camp to mend clothes and see to the general welfare of soldiers, particularly those without family or friends nearby. Such groups were granted the use of a tent by the Defence Department. Mrs McCall was probably Grace McCall of Seymour whose son 979 Private David Gordon McCall enlisted in 1915 under the alias David Gordon and was killed in action in France in 1918. In 1915 Grace McCall was living in the Seymour area. Following a move to Melbourne she became an honorary secretary of the 2nd Infantry Brigade Depot and was involved with Comforts Funds. Following the war Grace worked for a time as a dressmaker in Hobart, Tasmania. 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks. 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks. (See also DAODS00533, DAODS00544 and DAODS00545)