Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 6315 Private (Pte) George William Coombs, 2nd Pioneer Battalion. A farmer from Tourello, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Coombs embarked with the 5th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Karoo on 18 September 1916. Whilst serving in France he developed pleurisy and returned to Australia on 16 March 1918 and was medically discharged. Still suffering from the effects of his illness, he died on 27 December 1920 and was buried in the Learmonth Cemetery, Victoria. 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.