Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 5447 Private (Pte) Albert Simmonds, 14th Battalion. Originally from Godalming, Surrey, England, Pte Simmonds was a gardener from Hawksburn, Victoria prior to enlistment and embarked with the 17th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Euripides on 4 April 1916. Later wounded in action in France, he remained with his unit and, on 11 April 1918, aged 27, was killed in action and was buried in the Foncquevillers Military Cemetery, France. 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.