Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 6860 Private Harold Vernon McVittie, 23rd Battalion from Kyabram, Victoria. A 25 year old labourer prior to enlistment on 2 February 1917, he embarked for overseas with the 19th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 11 May 1917 aboard HMAT Ascanius. He was killed in action near Corbie, France on 16 June 1918 and is buried in the Ribemont Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, 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 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks.