Site Home
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.
Great War Home
Search
Add Stories & Photos
Library
Help & FAQs
Features
Allied Army
Day by Day
RFC & RAF
Prisoners of War
War at Sea
Training for War
The Battles
Those Who Served
Hospitals
Civilian Service
Women at War
The War Effort
Central Powers Army
Central Powers Navy
Imperial Air Service
Library
World War Two
Submissions
Add Stories & Photos
Time Capsule
Information
Help & FAQs
Glossary
Our Facebook Page
Volunteering
News
Events
Contact us
Great War Books
About
217494Lt. Benjamin William Champion
Australian Imperial Force 1st Infantry Battalion
from:Australia
Benjamin William Champion was born at Stanmore, New South Wales, in 1897. Prior to the First World War he spent four years as an army cadet and developed a career as a dental apprentice. He enlisted as an 18-year-old with the Australian Imperial Force on 11 May 1915 after gaining his father's permission. Champion departed Sydney with reinforcements for the 1st Infantry Battalion aboard HMAT Orsova on 14 July 1915.
In November 1915, Champion was sent to Gallipoli to join the 1st Battalion soldiers already serving on the peninsula. He was evacuated at the end of the month after sustaining wounds to the face and thigh. Champion rejoined his unit on the Western Front and was rapidly promoted through the ranks in 1916. His experiences at Lagnicourt, Broodseinde Ridge, and Passchendale are documented in detail in the diary he kept since the day he had enlisted. In one entry Champion mentions a German soldier who bandaged up a British soldier, only to be killed later; the allies subsequently erected the German soldier's grave. Champion's final promotion was to the rank of Lieutenant in 1917, a year in which he again sustained wounds from battle. On 15 April 1918, while at Pradelles, he sustained a shell injury to his left leg that was consequently amputated. Champion returned to Australia in June. He settled in the Newcastle area, where he established a dental practice. Several years after the war he married and remained in the Newcastle area until his death in 1978.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?
If so please let us know.
Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.