Born in Walworth, South London, the eldest son of George Champion. Became interested in insects at least as early as 1862. J.J. Walker records in an obituary notice in EMM., 63, 1927,197-203, 'Encouraged by his friend the late Mr J. Platt Barrett, as well as by the award of a small insect cabinet as a school prize, he began, as is so often the case, by collecting moths and butterflies; but his attention was soon engrossed by the Order to which his life-work was devoted, and the splendid collection of British Coleoptera which he amassed in after years was commenced by him when a youth of not more than sixteen ... It was during this early period of his work that a chance meeting on the sea-wall near Sheerness, one sunny June morning in 1870 - a day marked by the addition of Baris scolopacea to the British Beetle fauna - initiated a friendship which was cemented fifteen years later by a happy marriage into the writer's family, and has endured unbroken and unclouded for upwards of fifty-seven years'.
Champion's initial work was mainly in the Home Counties where he discovered many rare and interesting species, including numerous additions to the British list. The turning point in his entomological studies came in 1878, however, when he gave up being a businessman to accept a post as collector for F. Ducane Godman and Osbert Salvin who had just commenced their monumental Biologia Centrali America. Champion left England early in February 1879 for Guatemala where he arrived on 16 March. Then commenced four years of journeys and intensive collecting which are described in a series of articles he wrote to the EMM., 18, 1882, 226-229; 20, 1884, 72-175, 199-205 and 248-250, and in the introductory volume of the Biologia.
Champion describes first the equipment he used for collecting. He had taken out a lot but soon found that more than half of it was useless because there were insufficient mules, horses, or Indian backs to carry so much weight. 'My usual plan was to stay a few days here and there, at various places on the road, till I came to what appeared a likely place, then I would remain longer and, if necessary, send to my nearest headquarters for more boxes, etc.; in this way I travelled over a large part of Guatemala, and of the northern part of the Columbian state of Panama.' His beating tray he quickly abandoned 'finding that I could manage much better with a large balloon-shaped, jointed cane, butterfly net: a net of this kind will answer very well for all Orders of insects, it can be turned over to beat on to, and at the same time, you have a net ready to catch anything on the wing...'.
Protecting his specimens was a constant problem: 'While mounting beetles, etc. indoors, the ants have often carried off my captures under my very nose'; and 'often I have come in wet or tired... and put my boxes down for a short time only to find on opening them ... that hundreds of ants had already commenced devouring my captures.' But the forests were so rich that he could afford a few losses. He learned to look for new clearings in particular 'then is the time almost before the trees are down, beetles begin to appear - Longhorns (I have taken perhaps 100 species in one clearing, by constant hunting day after day for a fortnight), Elateridae, Anthribidae...'. But many less desirable species abounded too: 'minute ticks are a great pest... frequently swarming all over one... and mosquitoes and other Diptera are sometimes, very troublesome, though fortunately, there are no land-leeches'. Snakes, however, 'are only too common...and ... I have beaten them onto my net several times'.
So successful was Champion as a collector that he managed to return in the summer of 1883 having taken not less than 15,000 species of insects. He at once found employment as Secretary and chief assistant to Godman and Salvin, and in that capacity he saw through the press the fifty two volumes of the Biologia. Champion himself specialised in preparing the Coleopterous material for publication and in writing the volumes and parts covering the Heteromera, the Elateridae and Dascillidae, the Cassididae, and by far the greater part of the Curculionidae. In these groups alone he described more than 4,000 species new to science.
While pursuing this work Champion also found time to collect extensively in Britain, particularly around Woking where he settled in 1892, and on the Continent where he often took his summer holiday. T.A. Chapman was a great friend and often accompanied him on these trips. Many of these captures subsequently formed the subject of notes to the contemporary journals. In the EMM., of which he was one of the editors, alone, he published 426 articles; and he also published frequently in the Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist, of which he was also an editor.
Champion died from heart disease and is buried at Horsell cemetery. His British collections passed to his eldest son and subsequently to the NHM where they joined the 150,000 continental and other foreign beetles which he had bequeathed to the Museum. Another 5,200 beetles selected from his collection was presented to the HDO by his son H.G. Champion in 1936. I have also seen specimens collected by him in a number of other institutions including the Manchester Museum (Blatch, Britten, Taylor, and Spaeth collections); Bolton Museum (Mason collection); and the RSM (Waterhouse collection). Simon Hayhow tells me that there are specimens collected by him in the Isle of Wight and Hants in the C.G. Hall collection at Oldham Museum, and Ashley Kirk-Spriggs that there are specimens from Panama in the Rippon Collection at Cardiff. Sharon Reid at the Central Science Laboratory (DEFRA), York, informs me that there are specimens collected by Champion in the F.Bates collection there (see BATES, F. and WILLIAMS, B.S.) and Tony Irwin has pointed out that there are specimens collected by Champion in E.A.Butler’s foreign collection of Coleoptera and Hemiptera at Norwich Museum. There are also specimens in K.C.Lewis's collection.
There are letters from Champion in the Sharpe volumes at Liverpool Museum; various references in the Janson diary at Cambridge; and a photograph of him (collecting) among the Tomlin papers at Cardiff. Smith (1986) records that diaries of captures (1868-89); notes on localities visited in Colombia; original drawings of beetles and correspondence with Paulton, 1896-1918 are in the HDO.
Gilbert (1977) lists 9 obituaries and other references. J.J. Pino, an entomologist in Galicia, Northern Spain, wrote to me in December 2002 saying that he was doing research into the journey of T.A. Chapman (QV) and G.C. Champion to that area in 1906.
FES from March 1871, Council 1875-77, Vice President 1925, and Librarian 1891-1920. (It was he who compiled the Catalogue and Supplement of the Library.) FLS. FZS. Member of the SLENHS, which he helped to found in 1872. (MD 1/02, 10/03, 12/06)