Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Portrait of R V Matthews and another soldier. Matthews is probably 6534 Private (Pte) Reginald Vernald Matthews, on the right. A labourer from North Williamstown, Victoria, prior to enlistment, Matthews embarked from Melbourne with the 21st Reinforcements, 5th Battalion, aboard HMAT Nestor (A71) on 2 October 1916. He returned to Australia on 27 August 1917 suffering from kidney stones. 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. See also DA16324.