Born in Edinburgh the eldest son of Major John Carey Champion and Elizabeth, nee Herries, the daughter of William Urquhart of Craigstone Castle, Aberdeenshire. Educated at Sandhurst and gazetted an Ensign in the 95th regiment on 2 August 1831. Embarked on foreign service in 1838 after obtaining the rank of Captain. After a stay in the Ionian Islands, his duties took him to Ceylon and thence, in 1847, to Hongkong. He returned to England in 1850 but left again, for the Crimea, in April 1854. He was wounded at Inkermann on 5 November 1854, gazetted Lieutenant Colonel and C.B. for his conduct in the battle, but he died shortly after in Scutari hospital.
Champion was primarily a botanist, but he did collect beetles, and the red longhorn Erythrus championii was named after him. He published a 'Notice on the Coleoptera of Hongkong' in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 17, 2, 1848, 206-209, and I have a note that he was the author of 'Notes on various insects' which was published under the pseudonym 'Jonicus' in Ent. Mag., 3, 1835, 176-178, 376-379, 460-465. Correspondence between Champion and W. Hooker and J. Lindley exists at Kew, where many of his plants are preserved. There is an account in DNB. with a bibliography. (MD 1/O2)