Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives Accession Number: DA13199

Description

Studio portrait of 3571 Private (Pte) Robert Edward McIndoe (centre) and two unidentified men, one wearing civilian clothing (left) and the other wearing an army issue jacket (right). Pte McIndoe is posed with a glass in one hand and a cigar in the other. The man on the right is holding a beer bottle [a piece of material poked in the neck to simulate liquid pouring out] and the man on the left is pouring a glass of beer. A grazier from Leongatha, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte McIndoe had previously been rejected due to bad teeth and embarked with the rank of Acting Corporal with the 8th Reinforcements, 21st Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Demosthenes on 29 December 1915. Later promoted to Lance Corporal (L/Cpl) he was invalided to England suffering from otitis media. Following his recovery he re-joined his battalion and subsequently transferred to the 24th Battalion. Disease was rife on the front and L/Cpl Mcindoe was in and out of hospital in England on several occasions suffering from various ailments. While recovering he took the opportunity to be married after recovering he re-joined his unit. He returned to Australia on 18 July 1919 and was medically discharged. 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