CHAMP, Finlay Campbell Uchtred Knox
| Service Number: | Officer |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 28 August 1914 |
| Last Rank: | Second Lieutenant |
| Last Unit: | 5th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Toorak, Victoria, Australia, 10 May 1891 |
| Home Town: | Meredith, Golden Plains, Victoria |
| Schooling: | The Geelong College, Melbourne Grammar School |
| Occupation: | Farmer |
| Died: | Illness, Camberwell, Victoria, 1971 |
| Cemetery: |
Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Melbourne Cremated - ashes scattered |
| Memorials: | Geelong College WW1 Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 28 Aug 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Second Lieutenant, Officer, 5th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 21 Oct 1914: | Involvement 5th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '8' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Orvieto embarkation_ship_number: A3 public_note: '' | |
| 21 Oct 1914: | Embarked 5th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Orvieto, Melbourne | |
| 31 May 1915: | Discharged AIF WW1, Second Lieutenant, Officer, 5th Infantry Battalion, Appointment terminated as medically unfit |
Help us honour Finlay Campbell Uchtred Knox Champ's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Elizabeth Allen
Finlay served with the 5th Infantry Battalion and returned to Australia on 3rd April, 1915 and was discharged on 31st May, 1915 as medically unfit
He died in Camberwell in Victoria in 1971 and was cremated at Springvale Cemetery
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Finlays son Peter Lloyd CHAMP (VX16103) served in the 2nd World War in the AIF and died at sea on the 1st July, 1942 on the ship Montevideo Maru
Biography contributed by Daryl Jones
CHAMP, Finlay Campling Uchtred Knox (1891-1971)
Finlay Champ was born on the 10 May 1891, the son of a former Scotch College student, James Knox Champ and his wife Clara nee Smythe. He was enrolled as a student at Geelong College from 1900 later attending Melbourne Gramar School. His enrolment address at Geelong College was Noble St, Geelong.
He was farming at Darra near Meredith, when he enlisted in the AIF, and embarked on 21 October 1914 as a Lieutenant with the 5th Battalion on HMAT A3 Orvieto for Egypt, where he had medical problems, and was evacuated on 17 April 1915. After an operation for appendicitis the medical authorities advised his return to Australia.
In 1918, he married Dorothy Ormond Lloyd, daughter of Henry Frederick and Mary Catherine Lloyd. He died in 1971. His brothers, Charles Alexander Champ (1883-1963) and William Butler Napier Champ (1887-1961), were also educated at Geelong College.
His nephew, Jack Wilton Knox Champ (1913-1998), also an Old Geelong Collegian, served with the 2/6th Battalion AIF as a lieutenant in World War II and was taken prisoner in Greece on 9 May 1941. He was held in numerous German prison camps, including Oflag IVC Colditz, one of twenty Australians to be held there, until his release on 16 April 1945. Jack Champ was a reluctant prisoner who took part in two of the most spectacular mass escapes of the war, from Oflag VIB Warburg and Oflag VIIB Eichstatt, he told his story in The Diggers of Colditz, which he wrote in conjunction with Colin Burgess. The website briefly describes Colditz: 'Colditz was a very special camp at which the guards outnumbered the prisoners, and the castle was floodlit at night. Initially the Germans boasted that Colditz Castle was escape-proof, but they were wrong. By the end of the war there had been more escapes from Colditz than from any other prison of comparable size during both world wars.'
Source : The Geelong College - http://gnet.geelongcollege.vic.edu.au:8080/wiki/CHAMP-Finlay-Campling-Uchtred-Knox-1891-1971.ashx?HL=champ
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