Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of Porter G R, believed to be 3217 Private (Pte) George Richard Porter, 22nd Battalion from Hamilton, Victoria. A 21 year old labourer prior to enlisting on 7 July 1915, he embarked for overseas with the 7th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 26 November 1915 aboard HMAT Commonwealth (A73). After arriving in Egypt, he transferred to the 7th Battalion and then a month later, joined the 46th Battalion and went with them to France in June 1916. While serving in France, he was wounded in action on 11 April 1917 and evacuated to England where he had his left foot amputated. Pte Porter was returned to Australian and discharged from the army on 28 January 1918. 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.