Ronald Leonard Champion

Private Ronald Leonard "Ron" Champion
31 May 1922 - 20 Jan 2023
Profile Picture
Profile picture
Caption & credit
Ronald Leonard Champion (from Tim Wray)
Biography

Ron Champion was recalled as a Patrol member by surving members of the Patrol interviewed by Tim Wray. He does not appear on the nominal roll. He worked at Standard Check.

Postings
Unit or location Role Posted from until
Midsomer Norton Patrol Patrol member 1940 June 1942
National ID
WOKI 380/3
Occupation

Clerk

Address
11 Clevedon Road, Midsomer Norton, Somerset
Other information

The son of Leonard and Ethel he married Roma Shearn in 1950.

Tim Wray recalled; "After this he enlisted in the Royal Navy and did his training in H.M.S. RALEIGH in Torpoint, East Cornwall.  During his wartime service as a Stoker, Ron served in H.M.S. ARBELLA, which was a Combined Operations Landing Craft Training Establishment based in the old St John’s Workhouse next to the docks in Boston, Lincolnshire.  H.M.S. ARBELLA was commissioned on 21 January 1943 and paid off on 9 August 1945.  As a former Navy man myself we always had a lot to talk about whenever I visited Ron.

On 31 May 2022 Ron recently celebrated his 100th birthday and received a congratulatory card from H.M. The Queen.  He and his wife of 72 years lived in their own home in Midsomer Norton.

The attached photograph below shows Ron reading the recent Clement Wisdom novels about the wartime Auxiliary Units written by author Victoria M. Knox, who lives in Australia. Ron read the first three novels in the series, but not the fourth.  He told me that he really enjoyed them".

References

The Somerset Underground, Tim Wray

Midsomer Norton Facebook