de Champs was born on 10 October 1873 in Stockholm, Sweden, the son of navy commander Charles Eugène de Champs and his wife Eva. He was brother of army officer Henri de Champs. His father immigrated from the Netherlands and came from a noble family. de Champs was a student at Praktiska arbetsskolan för barn och ungdom from 1880 to 1886 and was an extra cadet on the corvette in 1886.
Career
Military career
He conducted preparatory education at the Royal Swedish Naval Academy from 1886 and 1887 and was then a sea cadet at the Royal Swedish Naval Academy from 1887 to 1893, becoming a second lieutenant in the Swedish Fleet in 1893. de Champs was promoted to sub-lieutenant in 1896 and attended the Royal Institute of Technology's vocational school for the machine architecture and mechanical technology from 1896 to 1899 and was promoted to lieutenant in 1902. He served in the Royal Swedish Naval Materiel Administration from 1899 to 1908 where he, between 1900 and 1908 began with attempts of wireless telegraphy. de Champs also handle the wireless telegraphy system in the Swedish Fleet and undertook study trips to Germany, France, England and Belgium as well as performed wireless telegraphy attempts between Karlskrona and Berlin in 1903. He was expert at the International Radiotelegraph Conference in Berlin in 1906. de Champs was duty officer for Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland from 1905 to 1908 and was naval attaché at the Swedish mission in Tokyo and Beijing from 1908 to 1910. He served in the Naval Staff from 1908 to 1915 and as naval attaché at the Swedish mission and in London from 1914 to 1917. de Champs was promoted to commander of second rank in 1915. He was head of the Communications Department in the Naval Staff from 1916 to 1919 and promoted to commander of first rank in 1917. He was chief of staff of the commanding admiral in Karlskrona's commandant staff from 1919 to 1923 when he reached the rank of captain. de Champs was the flag captain of the commander-in-chief of the coastal fleet's staff from 1923 to 1925 and the inspector for the submarine force from 1926 to 1928. In 1927, de Champs was promoted to rear admiral in the Swedish Navy. He was rear admiral in the fleet and commanding admiral and station commander in Karlskrona from 1928 to 1933 and station commander in Stockholm from 1933 to 1936. He was promoted to vice admiral in 1934 and was Chief of the Navy from 1936 to 1939 when he was placed into the reserve. de Champs became the first Chief of the Navy at a very perplexing time for the Navy. Questions about the replacement of obsolete ships and moving of the naval station from Skeppsholmen was still unresolved and was urgently in need of a solution.
On 26 November 1919, de Champs married Ida Elisabeth Uggla, the daughter of office manager Karl Vilhelm Valfrid Uggla and Julia Amelie Nordwall. de Champs died in 1959 in Stockholm and was buried at Norra begravningsplatsen.
