Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 2693 Private Charles Arthur Letson, 24th Battalion from South Melbourne, Victoria. A 24 year old dresser prior to enlisting on 2 August 1915, he embarked for overseas with the 6th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 27 October 1915 aboard HMAT Ulysses. After serving in France and Belgium with the 7th Infantry Battalion, the 6th Machine Gun Company and the 2nd Machine Gun Battalion, he returned to Australia on 30 May 1919. Pte Letson died in No 11 Australian General Hospital, Melbourne on 26 February 1920 and is buried in the Boroondara General Cemetery, Kew, Victoria. 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 1930's 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 a unit name, for each negative.