Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 574 Sergeant (Sgt) Reginald James Pickett, 24th Battalion. A bricklayer from Dandenong, Vic prior to enlistment, Sgt Pickett embarked with the rank of Corporal with C Company from Melbourne on HMAT Euripides on 10 May 1915. Later promoted to Lieutenant, he was awarded the Military Cross "For conspicuous gallantry in leading bombing parties to clear the enemy out of trenches on the flanks of the portion of the Hindenburg Line captured on 3rd May 1917. Though wounded in the forearm early in the assault he continued to lead the bombers for 5 hours without a spell, on our right flank, doing most valuable work at a critical time" He was subsequently killed in action on 9 October 1917 and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial. 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.