Justin Champion (1960–2020)
The British historian Justin Champion, who was emeritus professor at Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), has died after a long illness. He was 59.
Champion studied at Churchill College, University of Cambridge and joined RHUL’s history department in 1992. He was an avid proponent of public history and, while department head from 2005 to 2010, established the U-’s first MA in the subject. He was president of the Historical Association from 2014 to 2017, and a year later was awarded the Medlicott Medal for outstanding services to history.
“It was an honour and a pleasure getting to know Justin while he was president of the Historical Association,” said its chief executive officer, Rebecca Sullivan. “He was key in our move to cover more diverse histories, particularly black British histories. He believed passionately in extending outreach, and in 2018 presented a masterful lecture about what public statues mean to various communities. His voice is much missed in the current debate, as it will be on so many other issues of history and its relevance.”
David Musgrove, content director of BBC History Magazine, said: “Champion was a leading scholar and an outstanding public historian, regularly appearing on BBC radio and TV programmes to explain complex issues with lucid ease. He graced these pages, and our podcast, several times, and the history world is poorer without him.”