Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 2831 Private (Pte) Roy Watson. A carpenter from Windsor, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Watson embarked with the 6th Reinforcements, 22nd Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Ulysses on 27 October 1915 and later served with the 57th Battalion before transferring to the 59th Battalion. Later reported as missing in action it was subsequently determined that he had been killed in action near Fromelles on 19 July 1916 and had been presumed buried in no man’s land. Following the Armistice his remains were recovered and re-interred in the Y Farm Military Cemetery. 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. See also DASEY2211.