Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4455 Private (Pte) Edmond Thomas McLean, 23rd Battalion. A rubber worker from Richmond, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte McLean embarked with the 4th Reinforcements, 6th Battalion from Melbourne on 13 April 1915 aboard HMAT Wiltshire. He was medically evacuated to Australia on 17 July 1915 and after treatment re-embarked on 23 April 1916 with the 11th Reinforcements of the 23rd Battalion from Melbourne aboard RMS Malwa. Later transferring to the 2nd Divisional Salvage Company he developed pneumonia and was evacuated to England. On 2 February 1919, aged 22 he succumbed to his illness at the Monte Video Camp Hospital, Weymouth, UK and was buried in the Melcombe Regis Cemetery, UK. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had a permit 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. The names are transcribed as they appear in the notebooks. See also DA12563.