Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 5054 Private (Pte) Henry Charles Brighton, 6th Battalion, of Mildura, Vic. An engine driver prior to enlistment, Pte Brighton embarked with the 16th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Suffolk on 1st April 1916. Later promoted to Lance Corporal he was awarded the Military Medal for bravery at Broodseinde Ridge. Subsequently reported as wounded and missing in action a later investigation determined that he had been killed in action on 30th October 1917, aged 27. Having no known grave, he is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had a 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.