Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4535 Private (Pte) Eugene Victor Lee. A saddler from Warrnambool, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Lee embarked with the 14th Reinforcements, 14th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Ballarat on 18 February 1916. He later transferred to the 30th Battalion and was wounded in the leg and admitted to hospital. Following his recovery he re-joined his battalion and on 18 May 1917 he was killed in action and buried in the Vaulx Hill Cemetery, Picardie, France. 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.