Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Family group:

Three: Able Seaman H. O. Champion, Royal Navy
1914-15 Star (217232, H. O. Champion, L.S., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (217232 H. O. Champion. A.B. R.N.) extremely fine

Efficiency Medal, G.VI.R., 1st issue, Territorial (T/1453153. Pte. W. T. Champion. R.A.S.C.) nearly extremely fine (4) £80-£120

Herbert Owen Champion was born in 1884 at Chiddingfold, Surrey and joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on 12 August 1901. He was shore expired and joined the Royal Fleet Reserve in May 1914. Champion served during the Great War in the pre-dreadnought battleships H.M.S. Illustrious, August 1914 to November 1915, and H.M.S. Vengeance, December 1915 to January 1917. He then served in H.M.S. Northbrook, a troopship of the Royal Indian Marine, from March 1917 to August 1917, and as such would have been present as the Northbrook assisted in the capture of the Turkish Garrison at Salif in June 1917. He was invalided ashore due to bronchitis in January 1918 and was awarded a Silver War Badge.