Darge Photographic Company collection of negatives Accession Number: DA13387

Description

Studio portrait of 4266 Private (Pte) Leslie Williams. A butcher from Geelong, Victoria prior to enlistment, Pte Williams embarked with the 10th Reinforcements, 24th Battalion from Melbourne on HMAT Wiltshire on 7 March 1916. While serving in France he was admitted to hospital suffering from gastro enteritis. After recovering he was wounded in the right foot and evacuated to England. Following his recovery he re-joined his battalion and was gassed and again invalided to England. He again re-joined his battalion and was wounded in the left thigh. Once more evacuated to England he was still recovering when the Armistice was declared. He returned to Australia on 6 May 1919 however he re-fractured his thigh due to the ship’s rolling. Following his arrival in Australia he was admitted to the 11th Australian General Hospital, Caulfield where, suffering from septic pneumonia, he died on 1 December 1919 and was buried in the Geelong Eastern Cemetery. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had a 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.

Details

Conflicts

• First World War, 1914-1918