Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of Private (Pte) Edward Joseph Griffin and a soldier identified as Bates. An orchardist from Ararat, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Griffin had been assigned to the 8th Reinforcements, 3rd Pioneer Battalion but had developed pneumonia, pleurisy and chronic bronchitis. He also suffered from recurrent synovitis of the right knee and these factors led him to be medically discharged on 15 January 1918. 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 DA18583 & DA18600.