Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of Private (Pte) Reginald Ernest Poulter, 7th Battalion. A rubbermaker from South Melbourne, Vic. prior to enlistment, Pte Poulter embarked with the 9th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Star of Victoria on 10 September 1915. Later he transferred to the 59th Battalion and then to the 60th Battalion where he was awarded the Military Medal. The citation reads " At Petillon on 19th/20th July 1916 Private Poulter courageously volunteered and successfully carried an important message from the front attacking lines in 'No Man's Land' back 300 yards back to our trenches under a withering machine gun and artillery fire. Later during the action he showed conspicuous gallantry on many occasions carrying important messages from our firing line." For these actions he was also awarded the Russian Medal of St. George - 4th Class. After being promoted to Corporal he was killed in action on 12 May 1917 at Bullecourt, aged 20, and is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had the 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.