Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 69314 Private (Pte) Baden Redvers Smead. Also known as Baden Charles Smead, Pte Smead was a lift attendant from Prahran, Victoria prior to enlistment and had previously been rejected as having a poor physique. He later enlisted on 6 June 1917 but was discharged when it was discovered that he was underage. He was finally accepted and embarked for overseas service with the 17th (V) Reinforcements from Sydney on HMAT Suevic on 2 November 1918 however the Armistice was declared whilst he was still in transit and his ship was recalled. He later went on to serve with the 2/14th Training Battalion during the Second World War. Two brothers, 50151 Pte Harold John Smead and 1605 Pte John Thomas Smead also served with the AIF. Pte John Thomas Smead, also known as Thomas James Smead, died of wounds on 24 September 1917. This 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.