Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 6070 Private (Pte) Laurence James Richardson, 5th Battalion from Bairnsdale, Victoria. A 19 year old labourer prior to enlisting on 4 May 1916, he embarked for overseas with the 19th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 28 July 1916 aboard HMAT Themistocles (A32). Following further training in England, he proceeded to France in November 1916 but before he could join his battalion, he contracted mumps and was returned to England. He eventually joined the 5th Battalion in France on 10 May 1917 and while serving in France suffered from several periods of illness. Pte Richardson returned to Australia on 2 July 1919 and was discharged 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.