Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 6786 Private (Pte) Oliver Richard Hood, 6th Battalion, a 20 year old window cleaner from Glenhuntly, Victoria when he enlisted in the AIF on 15 July 1916. He embarked for overseas with the 22nd Reinforcements from Melbourne on 25 October 1916 aboard HMAT Ulysses and joined the 37th Battalion in France on 15 June 1917. Pte Hood was wounded in action on 9 August 1918 but rejoined his unit the next day. On 30 August 1918 he was killed in action at Clery Wood, France and was buried in the wood. After the war, his grave could not be located so his name is inscribed on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France with others who have no known grave. 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.