Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 2491 Private (Pte) John Claude Mills, 7th Reinforcements, 14th Battalion. A blacksmith of Bruthen, Victoria, prior to enlistment he embarked from Melbourne aboard RMS Persia on 10 August 1915 for Egypt. His battalion relocated to the Western Front, France, during June 1916. In December 1916 he was transferred to 4 Divisional Headquarters as a driver before returning to the 14th Battalion in May 1917. Pte Mills was wounded in action near Allonville, France, on 31 May 1918 and died of these wounds the same day. He was aged 22 years. 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.