Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 6057 Private Michael Duncan McRae, 14th Battalion from Culcairn, NSW. A 22 year old farm labourer prior to enlistment on 8 February 1916, he embarked for overseas with the 19th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 1 August 1916 aboard HMAT Miltiades. He was killed in action on 11 Feburary 1917 near Mametz, France and is buried in the Bermafay Wood British Cemetery, Montauban, France. 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks.