Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of 3664 Private (Pte) Albert Watson and an unidentified soldier (positions unknown). A storekeeper from Garfield, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Watson embarked with the 8th Reinforcements, 23rd Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Afric on 5 January 1916. He later transferred to the 2nd Pioneer Battalion and was invalided to hospital after being gassed. After re-joining his unit he received multiple gunshot wounds and was evacuated to the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station. It was here where, on 9 March 1918, aged 24, he succumbed to his wounds and was buried in the Trois Arbres Cemetery, Steenwerck, France. 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.