Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives Accession Number: DA13182

Description

Studio portrait of R597 Private (Pte) Albert Barrington Leeson. A farmer from St Kilda, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Leeson had previously embarked for overseas duty with the serial number 597 with the 12th Light Horse Regiment (LHR) on 1 March 1915 but had been returned to Australia after becoming ill. He later re-embarked with the 18th Reinforcements, 8th LHR from Melbourne on RMS Mongolia on 11 July 1916. He later served with the 3rd Light Horse Training Regiment and the Imperial Camel Corps in the Middle East and was hospitalised suffering from hammer toe. Subsequently transferring to the 15th LHR he was admitted to hospital suffering from an unknown illness. He returned to Australia on 8 April 1919 and later served with the 3rd Garrison Battalion during the Second World War. 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.

Details

Conflicts

• First World War, 1914-1918