Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 5099 Private (Pte) Edward Gerald Vidler, 22nd Battalion. An engine cleaner from East Euroa, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Vidler embarked with the 13th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Ayrshire on 3 July 1916. Whilst in transit he developed pneumonia and, on 27 July 1916, he succumbed to his illness and was buried at sea. He is commemorated on the Hollybrook Memorial, Southampton, England. 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.