Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4509 Private (Pte) Vincent Toppin, 23rd Battalion. A storeman from Spring Hill, Queensland prior to enlistment, Pte Toppin had originally embarked for overseas service with the service number 766 with C Company, 25th Battalion from Brisbane on HMAT Aeneas on 29 June 1915. Following his arrival in Suez, he became ill and returned to Australia. Following his recovery he re-embarked with the 11th Reinforcements, 23rd Battalion from Melbourne on RMS Malwa on 23 April 1916. He was later awarded the Military Medal, the citation for which reads in part “(He) continued to carry ammunition to his Lewis gun though wounded by shrapnel…He is an exceptionally courageous and determined soldier.” He was later evacuated to England suffering a wound to the head. He returned to Australia on 25 January 1919 and was medically discharged. Tragically his wound left him mentally disabled and he spent the remainder of his life in an institution. 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.