Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 1977 Acting Sergeant (A/Sgt) Godfrey Snell (seated) and 1995 A/Sgt Francis George Watts, both of the 59th Battalion. Both men embarked with the 3rd Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Port Lincoln on 4 May 1916. An engineer from Mosman, NSW prior to enlistment, A/Sgt Snell later served in France and returned to Australia on 25 September 1919. A/Sgt Watts, a clerk from Guildford, NSW prior to enlistment later transferred to the 57th Battalion and was evacuated to England suffering from frost bite. Due to the severity of the frost bite he was considered no longer fit for active service and returned to Australia on 22 July 1917 and was medically discharged. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had a 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