Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Portrait of Lieutenant F H McNamara, Australian Flying Corps. An employee of the Education Department prior to enlistment, Lt Frank Hubert McNamara embarked with C Flight, No. 1 Squadron from Melbourne aboard HMAT Orsova (A67) on 16 March 1916. Lt McNamara was wounded in action on 20 March 1917. During an attack on a Turkish supply point at Gaza, Palestine, one of his shells exploded prematurely. It smashed through the bottom of his aircraft causing a wound in his thigh. For his actions during this operation McNamara was awarded the Victoria Cross. “For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty during an aerial bomb attack upon a hostile construction train, when one of our pilots was forced to land behind the enemy's lines. Lieutenant McNamara, observing this pilot's predicament and the fact that hostile cavalry were approaching, descended to his rescue. He did this under heavy rifle fire and in spite of the fact that he himself had been severely wounded in the thigh. He landed about 200 yards from the damaged machine, the pilot of which climbed on to Lieutenant McNamara's machine, and an attempt was made to rise. Owing, however, to his disabled leg, Lieutenant McNamara was unable to keep his machine straight, and it turned over. The two officers, having extricated themselves, immediately set fire to the machine and made their way across to the damaged machine, which they succeeded in starting. Finally Lieutenant McNamara, although weak from loss of blood, flew this machine back to the aerodrome, a distance of seventy miles, and thus completed his comrade's rescue.” McNamara was promoted to Captain and Flight Commander during his service. He returned to Australia and his appointment was terminated on 31 January 1918. In February the same year he was appointed to the Central Flying School. 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks.