Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4774 Private (Pte) Percival Edward Smith, 22nd Battalion. A farmer from Blind Creek, Tallandoon, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Smith embarked with the 10th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 7 March 1916. Later wounded in action, he was evacuated to hospital. On rejoining his unit he was accidently wounded and later promoted to Lance Corporal. He was awarded the Military Medal “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during the attack on Ville-sur-Ancre…” Subsequently reported as missing in action, it was determined that he was captured on 18 August 1918 and was being held as a prisoner of war in Belgium. On 10 November, aged 21, he died in the Namur prisoner of war camp, Belgium from an undetermined medical condition. Having no known grave, he is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. 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.