Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait probably of 2783 Lance Corporal (L Cpl) Thomas William Butler (alias Thomas Carter Winchester Butler), 37th Battalion wearing a bandolier provided by the studio. A miner from Bright, Victoria, prior to enlistment as a Private (Pte), he embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT Medic on 16 December 1916 for Plymouth, England. Pte Butler remained in England due to illness and training before joining his unit on the Western Front, France on 1 October 1917 and assumed his correct name, Thomas Carter Winchester Butler, to correct an error made on enlistment. He was appointed L Cpl on 10 August 1918 and two weeks later was wounded in action by mustard gas. He was evacuated to England for treatment and recuperation. Whilst on furlough, he developed pneumonia and was admitted to hospital in Glasgow, Scotland. L Cpl Butler died of this disease a week later on 16 October 1918. He was aged 27 years. 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.