Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Accession Number DACS1810
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Glass original quarter plate negative
Maker Darge Photographic Company
Place made Australia: Victoria, Melbourne
Date made c 18 June 1920
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Portrait of or for Mr Thornton (unable to further identify). The soldier in this image is wearing four year service chevrons, three wound stripes, and a ribbon bar of the Military Medal (MM) and service medals. He is not wearing any rank chevrons indicating he is a private and his colour patch may be that of the 12th Battalion. Two servicemen named Thornton were awarded the MM in the First World War; 644 Sergeant (Sgt) Reginald Thomas Thornton and 1826 Sgt Arthur Newton Thornton. It does not appear that it is a portrait of either of them. At the end of the war both had the rank of Sergeant, neither returned to Melbourne from overseas service, and the colour patch does not match either of their units (Reginald Thornton, 1st Field Artillery Brigade, and Arthur Thornton, 16th Australian Railway Operating Company). This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had a 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks.

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