Sara Champion (nee Hermon) (11 November 1946 â 14 May 2000) was a British archaeologist with an interest in the European Iron Age and the role and visibility of women working in archaeology. She was editor of PAST, the newsletter of The Prehistoric Society from 1997 until her death in 2000. The Prehistoric Society hosts an annual Sara Champion Memorial Lecture.
Champion was born Sara Hermon, the second of four children. The family lived in Kenya and Tanzania (Tanganyika at the time) for six years of her childhood. Champion later attended Benenden School. After Benenden, Champion attended the University of Edinburgh, where she studied for her first degree and a master's degree in archaeology under Stuart Piggott and Charles Thomas. In 1968 Champion moved to St Hugh's College, Oxford, where she studied for a D.Phil. under the supervision of Christopher Hawkes concentrating on the Early European Iron Age.
Sara Champion spent time at the University of Galway in Ireland, before moving to the University of Southampton in 1972, where she undertook a two-year fellowship in archaeology. She carried out excavations at sites like Dragonby, and in Hampshire an important Iron Age site near Andover. Sara was then made a Hartley Fellow in the Department of Archaeology, later becoming a Research Fellow in that department. She also lectured archaeology at the University of Southampton, as well as Adult and Continuing Education courses. In addition to research and teaching, Sara undertook other roles being a member of the National Trust Archaeology Panel, a chief examiner of the NEAB Archaeology A-level Board, and a field monument warden in West Hampshire and Dorset for English Heritage, overseeing the upkeep and preservation of scheduled monuments. Champion understood the importance of media, electronic publications and bibliographical searches very early, as well as the overall potential of the internet for archaeology and she lectured and wrote articles on the application of internet resources in the teaching of archaeology, and electronic archaeology. She also spoke at several events on this topic including various IFA conferences. Another area of research and interest was role the visibility of women in archaeology.
Sara Champion was a published author with publications on a range of topics from the Iron Age, to women in archaeology and Irish folklore. She was the editor for the Prehistoric Society's newsletter PAST.
Six years after Champion's death a seminar room in the Crawford Building, the new building for the archaeology department at the University of Southampton, was named in her honour.
Champion met Timothy Champion (future President of the Royal Archaeological Institute and The Prehistoric Society) while studying at Oxford and they were married in 1970 at St Paul's Church in Knightsbridge. In 1972 the Champions moved to Southampton, where their two sons, Edward and William (the drummer of Coldplay), were born, in the mid-1970s, and 1978 respectively.
Champion's interests outside archaeology included music (she regularly djed at departmental and archaeological social gatherings) and she was a long-term member of the Southampton Philharmonic Choir.
Champion died of cancer in May 2000. The band Coldplay, of which her son Will is a member, dedicated their debut album Parachutes to her on its release in July 2000.
The Prehistoric Society's annual Sara Champion Memorial Lectures are held every October at the Society of Antiquaries of London lecture theatre in Burlington House, Piccadilly, London. The 10th annual lecture, due to be held in October 2010, was deferred and instead a debate was held to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Prehistoric Society. The Sara Champion Debate had the topic "This House believes that the study of the Stone Ages has contributed more to our knowledge of the human condition than study of the Metal Ages" and was led by Clive Gamble and Tim Champion.
The 2020âÂÂ2021 lecture numbering system seems to have missed one out: the 20th Sara Champion Memorial Lecture.