Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 2192 Private (Pte) Leslie Herbert Knapp, 58th Battalion from South Yarra, Victoria. He was a 19 year old telephonist when he enlisted in the AIF on 1 May 1916 and embarked for overseas with the 4th Reinforcements from Melbourne on 1 August 1916 aboard HMAT Orsova. Pte Knapp transferred to the 59th Battalion in France on 28 December 1916 and was still with that unit when he was wounded in action near Peronne, France on 2 September 1918. He died of wounds on 12 September 1918 and is buried in the Heath Cemetery, Harbonnieres, France. 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 1930's, 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.