Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4402 Private (Pte) Michael Joseph Donovan, 24th Battalion. A grazier from Deniliquin, NSW prior to enlistment, Pte Donovan embarked with the 11th Reinforcements from Melbourne on RMS Malwa on 21 March 1916. Later wounded in action in Belgium he was evacuated to the No5 General Hospital, France where on succumbed to his wounds on 13 October 1917 and was buried in the St Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, France. 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.