Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4569 Acting Corporal (A/Cpl) Leslie John Owens. A farmer from Northcote, Victoria prior to enlistment, A/Cpl Owens had previously been rejected as having an insufficient chest measurement. After successfully enlisting he embarked with the 14th Reinforcements, 5th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Themistocles on 28 January 1916. Following his arrival in the Middle East he was hospitalized suffering from influenza. After recovering he transferred to the 46th Battalion and then to the 12th Light Trench Mortar Battery. Subsequently promoted to Lance Corporal he was invalided to England suffering from rheumatism. Later re-joining the 46th Battalion he was promoted to Lance Sergeant and evacuated to England suffering from trench fever. Also contracting influenza for the second time he was diagnosed as suffering from general debility and returned to Australia on 10 December 1918. 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.