Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4035 Sapper Michael Francis Hardiman, No 5 Tunnelling Company, a 38 year old farmer from Mitiano, Victoria when he enlisted and embarked for overseas from Melbourne aboard HMAT Warilda. While serving with the 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company in France, he was wounded in action on 19 March 1917. He returned to his unit and was killed in action on 4 October 1918. Sapper Hardiman is buried at the Prospect Hill Cemetery, Gouy, between Cambrai and St Quentin, France. 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 1930's, 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks.