Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of F A Clarke, believed to be 2601 Private (Pte) Forbes Alexander Clarke, 23rd Battalion from Warburton, Victoria. A 33 year old mill hand prior to enlisting on 2 August 1915, he embarked for overseas with the 6th Reinforcements from Melbourne aboard HMAT Ulysses (A38) on 27 October 1915. After arriving in Egypt, he transferred to the 58th Battalion and went with them to France in June 1916. Pte Clarke was wounded in action in France on 19 July 1916 and evacuated to England for medical treatment. Shortly after returning to the 58th Battalion in France in December 1916, he was promoted to Lance Corporal and five months later to Corporal and then three months after that to Sergeant (Sgt). Sgt Clarke arrived back in Australia on 31 May 1919. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had a permit 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.