Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of three Australian soldiers. Identified on the left is 2755 Private (Pte) Harold Milton Wise, 57th Battalion from Linton, Victoria [see image DA16072] and in the centre is 2703 Private Archibald John McPhail, 57th Battalion from Heywood, Victoria [see image DA16070]. The soldier on the right is unidentified. Privates Wise and McPhail embarked for overseas with the 6th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 2 October 1916 aboard HMAT Nestor (A71). Following further training in England, they joined the 57th Battalion in France on 7 February 1917. Pte Wise was killed in action near Messines, Belgium on 25 February 1918 and is buried in the La Plus Douve Farm Cemetery, Belgium. Pte McPhail was reported as missing in action at Gueudecourt on 13 February 1917 but later confirmed to have been wounded in action on that day. After being evacuated to England for medical treatment, he was eventually returned to Australia in January 1918 and discharged as medically unfit for further service. 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.