Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait possibly of 2205 Private Richard Ellis, 2nd Pioneer Battalion who was a 21 year old suction-gas fireman from Geelong, Victoria when he enlisted and embarked for overseas with the 3rd Reinforcements from Melbourne on 6 June 1916 aboard HMAT Wandilla. While serving in Belgium, he was wounded in action and died of those wounds on 29 September 1917. He is buried in the Lijssenthoek Military 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 1930's, 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks.