Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 1682/4824 Private (Pte) James Clark Love and two unidentified soldiers (position unknown). Originally from Beith, Scotland, Pte Love was an upholsterer from Camberwell, Victoria prior to enlistment and embarked with the 15th Reinforcements, 8th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Wiltshire on 7 March 1916. He later transferred to the 51st Battalion and sustained a shell wound to his face and as a consequence he was invalided to England. Following his recovery he re-joined his battalion and was wounded in the knee. He was evacuated to the 10th Casualty Clearing Station and it was here where he succumbed to his wounds and was interred in the Lijssentoek Military Cemetery, Flanders, Belgium. 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.