Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3564 Private (Pte) Edward Jesse Lewis. Originally from Wiltshire, England, Pte Lewis was a wagon driver from Alphington, Victoria prior to enlistment and embarked with the 8th Reinforcements, 23rd Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Afric on 5 January 1916. He was initially reported as missing in action however a subsequent court of enquiry determined that he had been killed in action on 28 July 1916 in the vicinity of Somme. Following the Armistice his remains were recovered and re-interred in the Serre Road No2 Cemetery, Beaumont Hamel, France. 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.