Leslie Champion

Sergeant Les Champion was in the Royal Engineers in WW1, he specialized in working on tanks.

Working as a millers lorry driver, in 1939 he was a volunteer local ambulance driver. He married Ethel Searle in 1923.

Early in the war, ammunition and explosives were stored in a lean to shed at the side of Churchtown Cottage, Probus, the home of Sgt. Champion. Later, everything was stored in the OB but rather than handed in after stand down it was all returned to Sgt. Champion's house. When Les died and his son took over the house in the early 1960's the bomb disposal squad had to be called in to remove and destroy the large amount of explosives still stored in the lean to. There is nothing left at the site now !

Les Champion and Denis Hooper were next door neighbours so they both would have had close and easy access to the explosives stored in the house.

Les and Ethel's son Patrick, married Joy Knowles, the daughter of Sergeant Knowles of Grampound Patrol.