Studio portrait of 1982 Private (Pte) George Alfred Cottome, 31st Battalion. A blacksmith from Balmain, NSW prior to enlistment, Pte Cottome embarked with the 3rd Reinforcements from Melbourne on HMAT Ballarat on 19 February 1916. Later suffering from endocarditis, he returned to Australia on 24 June 1916 and was medically discharged. 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.