Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Outdoor portait of soldiers of the 2nd Lines, 16th Reinforcements, including Cairns (position unknown). Cairns is probably 5072 Private (Pte) Leslie George Cairns, a miner from Eaglehawk, Victoria, prior to enlistment. Pte Cairns embarked from Melbourne with the 16th Reinforcements, 6th Battalion, aboard HMAT Suffolk (A23) on 1 April 1916. He developed pleurisy onboard ship and spent many weeks in hospital in Egypt before transferring to England. He recovered enough to commence training then transferred to France. Pte Cairns had a relapse of his illnes and returned to Australia on 22 February 1917. He went straight to Caulfield Repatriation Hospital where he remained until his death on 20 September 1917. 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks.