Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4900 Private (Pte) Edward Thomas Williams. A carpenter from Caulfield, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Williams embarked with the 13th Reinforcements, 29th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Suevic on 21 June 1917. Later transferring to the 38th Battalion he was wounded in action and evacuated to England. He was still recovering when the Armistice was declared and returned to Australia on 15 January 1919. 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.