Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 4438 Private (Pte) Charles Henry Brear, 7th Battalion, of South Yarra, Vic and an unidentified woman. A groom prior to enlistment, Pte Brear embarked with the 14th Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Themistocles. He was killed in action on 19th July 1916, aged 21, and is commemorated on the VC Corner Australian Memorial, Fromelles. 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.