Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 2611 Private (Pte) Ernest Charles Clarke, 22nd Battalion. A newsagent from Moonee Ponds, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Clarke embarked with the 6th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Ulysses on 27 October 1915. Later transferring to the 7th Battalion, he was wounded in action on two separate occasions. Subsequently developing chronic bronchitis, he returned to Australia on 9 February 1919. 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.