Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 341 Private (Pte) Albert Charles Mills, 15th Machine Gun Company from Bruthen, Victoria. A 28 year old labourer prior to enlisting on 27 March 1916, he embarked for overseas with the 4th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 16 August 1916 aboard RMS Orontes. Following further training in England, he proceeded to France where he had a short period of illness before joining the 15th Machine Gun Company on 6 May 1917. Three days later he was killed in action. Pte Mills is commemorated on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, 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 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.