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 This item is in the Public Domain |
Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives
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.