Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of A R Blake, probably 2566 Private (Pte) Archibald Raymond Blake, 6th Battalion. A labourer from Balaclava, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Blake embarked with the 8th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Anchises on 26 August 1915. While serving in France, he was wounded in action and, due to the severity of his wound, returned to Australia on 14 January 1917 and was medically discharged. He later went on to serve with the 9th Garrison Battalion during the Second World War. 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 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.