Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4447 Private (Pte) George Augustus Bull. A labourer from West Footscray, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Bull embarked with the 14th Reinforcements, 5th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Themistocles on 28 January 1916. Following his arrival in Suez he was transferred to the 46th Battalion and was admitted to hospital suffering from scabies and gastritis. Subsequently diagnosed as suffering from debility and psychosis he returned to Australia on 24 June 1916 and was medically discharged. He attempted to re-enlist on 21 November 1917 but was again declared as medically unfit. 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.