Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives

Studio portrait of Private (Pte) Albert Roy Butler, 59th Battalion. A labourer from North Melbourne, Victoria, prior to enlistment in the 5th Battalion, he embarked from Melbourne aboard HMAT Ayrshire on 3 July 1916 for Plymouth, England. After training in England he proceeded to France where he was transferred to the 59th Battalion. Pte Butler was wounded in action on the first occasion at Polygon Wood on 26 September 1917 and was evacuated to England for treatment and recuperation before rejoining his unit in France on 21 February 1918. He was wounded in action on a second occasion near Albert, France, on 4 July 1918 and was again evacuated to England for treatment and then for return to Australia. Pte Butler was still receiving treatment prior to discharge when he died of influenza on 4 February 1919 at the 5th Australian General Hospital, Melbourne. 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.