Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4208 Private (Pte) Charles Reginald Hobbs. A labourer from Harrow, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Hobbs embarked along with his brother 4209 Pte John Albert Percy Hobbs with the 13th Reinforcements, 14th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Demosthenes on 29 December 1915. Later joining the 4th Machine Gun Battalion he was hospitalised suffering from mumps. After re-joining his unit it was reported that he was missing in action. It was later determined that he and his brother had been both been captured and were being held as prisoners of war. Following the Armistice they were both repatriated to England and Pte Charles Hobbs returned to Australia on 17 March 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.