Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3882 Acting Corporal (A/Cpl) Charles Henry Norman. A blacksmith from Geelong West, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Norman embarked with the rank of Private with the 9th Reinforcements, 24th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Warilda on 8 February 1916. After serving on the Western Front he was granted leave following the Armistice to remain in England in order to study motor engineering. He took time off during his studies in order to get married and he and his wife returned to Australia on 22 Dec 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.