Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 7564 Private (Pte) Gilbert Theodore Haxle Stephen. A labourer from Hamilton, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Stephen embarked with the 25th Reinforcements, 5th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Themistocles on 4 August 1917. Following his arrival in England was continually in trouble and was court martialed and imprisoned. Later suffering from pneumonia and bronchitis his sentence was remitted and he returned to Australia on 6 May 1919. Subsequently admitted to No. 11 Australian General Hospital where he succumbed to his illnesses on 14 September 1919 and was buried in the Brighton General Cemetery, Victoria. 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.