304 The late Lieut- Colonel John G. Champion. 



after a long and most deadly struggle hand to hand. It was 

 at this moment of victory that Major Champion received his 

 death-wound from a musket ball through the breast and lungs. 

 He was taken from the field, and reached the hospital of Scu- 

 tari. His brilliant conduct in this his last action received 

 honourable acknowledgment from Lord Raglan in his de- 

 spatches, and in the Gazette of 12th December, where he was 

 raised to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel for distinguished 

 services in the field, but the acknowledgment and the honour 

 came too late to reach the ear of him who had so nobly gained 

 them. Death had put a period to his sufferings on the 30th 

 of November. 



Colonel Champion's taste for Natural History developed it- 

 self very early ; when yet a boy he devoted himself to Ento- 

 mology, and with Kirby's Monographia Apium Angliae as 

 his guide (one of the first scientific works which fell into his 

 hands) he made a very complete collection of Scottish bees. 

 Shortly after he joined the army his regiment was ordered to 

 Corfu, and he eagerly availed himself of the wider field there 

 offered to him, and made and brought home to this country a 

 large collection of insects of all orders from the Ionian Isles. 

 His attention next was turned towards Botany, the branch of 

 Natural Science to which he ever after remained most devoted, 

 and the next foreign station to which he was ordered being 

 Ceylon, he had there ample opportunity of indulging that 

 predilection. He there became acquainted with the late Dr 

 Gardner, then superintendent of the Botanic Garden at Pera- 

 denia, and by him was confirmed in his nascent taste for 

 Botany. Whilst in Ceylon he collected much, explored many 

 unexamined parts of the island, and discovered several very 

 curious novelties which he carefully studied and made draw- 

 ings of in the living state. Some of these he published in 

 conjunction with Dr Gardner, and others have been since de- 

 scribed from his materials He also prosecuted his researches 

 in Entomology with equal vigour, and a very large collection 

 of insects (principally coleoptera) was sent by him to this 

 country, the major part of which were presented to the British 

 Museum. The then local $ Government of Ceylon saw with 

 pleasure men of such ability occupied in investigating the 



