Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Group portrait of Green, Halpin and Tong, 11 Hut, 9th Reinforcements, 21st Battalion, in a humorous pose. They are probably, left to right, 3819 Private (Pte) Archibald Green, 3828 Pte Frank Joseph Halpin and 3932 Pte Dudley George Tong, a soldier of Chinese descent. All three embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT Warilda (A69) on 8 February 1916. A driver from North Melbourne prior to enlistment, Pte Green transferred to the 24th Battalion while on overseas service. He returned to Australia on 13 April 1919. Pte Halpin was an asphalter from Fitzroy, Victoria, prior to enlistment. 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 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.