Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3143 Private (Pte) Percy William Hewitt, 23rd Battalion. A miner from Wonthaggi, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Hewitt embarked with the 7th reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Commonwealth on 26 November 1915. Later transferring to the 58th Battalion and then the 59th Battalion, he was killed in action on 16 September 1916, aged 21, and was buried in the Rue-Du-Bois Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France. Two brothers, 1711 Pte Henry John Hewitt MM, 46th Battalion and 4515 Corporal Stanley Hewitt, 6th Battalion, also served. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had the 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.