Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3727 Private (Pte) George Frank Brown. A brickmaker from Bendigo, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Brown embarked with the 12th Reinforcements, 5th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Ceramic on 23 November 1915. He was promoted to Lance Corporal and later suffering from trench fever he was evacuated to England. Following his recovery he re-joined his battalion and was wounded in action. He was again evacuated to England where, due to the severity of his wound, his left leg was amputated. Following the Armistice he took the opportunity to get married and returned to Australia on 25 July 1919. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had a permit 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.