Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Accession Number DA12169
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Glass original half plate negative
Maker Darge Photographic Company
Place made Australia: Victoria, Melbourne, Broadmeadows
Date made c 17 November 1915
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Studio portrait of 3064 Private (Pte) Michael Thomas Coogan. A farm labourer from Lara, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Coogan embarked with the 7th Reinforcements, 21st Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Wiltshire on 18 November 1915. Later transferring to the 60th Battalion and then the 58th Battalion he was posted as missing in action. A subsequent court of enquiry determined that he had been killed in action on 19 July 1916 and had been buried in the vicinity of Fleurbaix. Having no known grave he is commemorated on the VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial, Fromelles, 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. See also DA12423.