Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 6517 Private (Pte) Robert Anton Kaaden, 6th Battalion from Northcote, Victoria. He was an 18 year old farmer when he enlisted in the AIF on 8 July 1916 and embarked for overseas with the 21st Reinforcements from Melbourne on 2 October 1916 aboard HMAT Nestor. After suffering badly from trench fever throughout 1917, he was killed in action on 4 October 1917 in front of Westhoek Ridge, Belgium. Pte Kaaden was originally buried on Zonnebeke Ridge, Belgium but his grave could not be located after the war and his name was inscribed on the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres, Belgium with others who have no known grave. Pte Kaaden's brother, 1518 Pte Franz Leslie Kaaden also served and was drowned on 21 December 1919 in Australia after returning from being wounded in action in France. [See image DA11104] 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 1930's, 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.