Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 6359 Private (Pte) John Michael Tuena, 6th Battalion from Nhill, Victoria. A 26 year old farmer prior to enlisting on 3 June 1916, he embarked for overseas with the 20th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 11 September 1916 aboard HMAT Euripides (A14). Following further training in England and France, he joined the 6th Battalion on 17 December 1916. While serving on the Western Front, he was wounded in action at Anzac Ridge near Zonnebeke, Belgium on 27 October 1917 and died of his wounds that same day. Pte Tuena is buried in the Nine Elms British Cemetery, Belgium. 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.