Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 1591 Private (Pte) Robert Hill, 31st Battalion. A farmer from Gippsland, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Hill embarked with the rank of Acting Corporal with the 1st Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Bakara on 5 November 1915. Later promoted to Lance Corporal, he was killed in action near Fleurbaix, France, aged 20, and buried near where he fell. Following the Armistice, his remains could not be recovered and he is commemorated on the VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial, Fromelles, France. 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.