Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Portrait of Halpin and Tong, 11 Hut, 9th Reinforcements, 21st Battalion, probably 3828 Private (Pte) Frank Joseph Halpin (left ) and 3932 Pte Dudley George Tong, a soldier of Chinese descent. An asphalter from Fitzroy, Victoria, Pte Halpin embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT Warilda (A69) on 8 February 1916. He returned to Australia on 24 August 1918 and was discharged medically unfit for further service. A driver from North Carlton, Victoria, prior to enlistment, Pte Tong also embarked with the 9th Reinforcements, 21st Battalion. He was wounded in action in 1916 and returned to Australia on 4 March 1917. 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks.