Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 2237 Private (Pte) Thomas James Port, 21st Battalion. A boot maker from Tatura, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Port embarked with the 4th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Hororata on 27 September 1915. While serving in France he was wounded in action and evacuated to England. After failing to fully recover from his wounds, he returned to Australia on 16 October 1916 and was medically discharged. 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.