Lieut. Christopher Henry Duncan Champion

Christopher Henry Duncan Champion was born at Launceston in Tasmania, Australia, on 15 September 1892. His parents were Rev. Arthur Hammerton Champion and Mary Celia Champion (nee Duncan) who had married at St George Meadows in South Australia in 1884. Christopher attended The Kings School in Parramatta. During World War I Christopher served with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), 3rd Infantry Battalion (Service No. WWI 637). Christopher was mentioned in Dispatches in 1917 for courage, devotion to duty, and able leadership of his company. 25-year-old Christopher was killed in action near the village of Merris in northern France on 14 April. 1918. His body wasn't recovered at the time and for many years he was remembered on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in France. His brother Geoffrey Servante Champion had been killed in action at Pozieres on 25 July 1916 and another brother, Arthur Champion, returned to Australia wounded on 9 September 1916. It would be 85 years after Christopher's death that his remains would finally be located. A farmer was ploughing a field near Merris when he dug up some English pottery. Amateur archaeologist Philippe Duquennoy was called in and further excavation revealed the remains of four soldiers with badges and insignia. One of the bodies was identified as Christopher's. They were given a miliary funeral and the remains re-interred in the Outtersteene Communal Cemetery Extension in France on 22 April 2005. Bio by Debbie McCauley (24 December 2024).

WWI diggers buried in France: The bodies - two of which remain unidentified - were found by a local farmer who turned up pottery with English writing while ploughing a field in 2003 and called in amateur archaeologist Philippe Duquennoy. "Digging around the area I came across the remains of four soldiers with badges and insignia," Mr Duquennoy said. The other identified body was that of Tasmanian-born Lieutenant Christopher Henry Duncan Champion, whose surviving relatives could not be traced, according to the Australian Defence Department. The cemetery lies by the village of Merris, which was totally obliterated in World War I. Source: AFP/ABC (22 April 2005) [abridged].