Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 2532 Private (Pte) Thomas Sloan Stewart, 57th Battalion from Bridgewater, Victoria. A 23 year old farmer prior to enlisting on 20 June 1916, he embarked for overseas with the 5th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 25 September 1916 aboard HMAT Shropshire. Following further training and a bout of illness in England, he arrived in France in late February 1917 and joined the 57th Battalion. After serving in France and Belgium, Pte Stewart returned to Australia on 30 April 1919. [See also image DA16199.] 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 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.