Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of W McClelland, believed to be 2712 Private (Pte) William Hughie McClelland, 24th Battalion from Eaglehawk, Victoria. An 18 year old moulder prior to enlisting on 23 July 1915, he embarked for overseas with the 6th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 27 October 1915 aboard HMAT Ulysses (A38). After arriving in Egypt, he was admitted to hospital in Cairo on 11 January 1916 with a back injury. Pte McClelland died of heart failure on 15 January 1916 and is buried in the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery, Cairo, Egypt. [See image P03318.019 which shows his grave and original headstone.] 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.