Biographical entry Belcher, Charles Frederic (1876 - 1970)

Summary

(Sir) Charles Frederic Belcher held high judicial positions in the British Colonial Service 1914-37. He was a keen amateur ornithologist who wrote about birds in the Geelong district from 1897, and in 1914 he wrote Birds of the District of Geelong, Australia.

Details

Born Geelong, Victoria, 11 July 1876. Died Harding, Natal, 7 February 1970. OBE 1923, Kt 1931. Educated University of Melbourne and Trinity College, Cambridge. Admitted to legal practice in Victoria 1902; lawyer, Victoria 1902-07; Called to the Bar (Gray's Inn) 1909-10; member of the legal firm of Birdsey and Belcher, Geelong 1910-14; member of the English Colonial Service, Uganda from 1914; . Assistant Judge, Zanzibar 1920; Acting Puisne Judge, Kenya 1920 and 1930; Member of Appeal Court, East Africa 1920 and 1925; Attorney-General, Nyasaland 1920; Judge, High Court of Nyasaland 1924-27; Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Cyprus 1927-30; Chief Justice of Trinidad and Tobago and President, West India Appeal Court 1930-37; Chief Legal Adviser (Lt.-Col.) Civil Affairs Branch, East Africa Command 1942-45. Foundation member, Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union 1901. Foundation member, Bird Observers' Club, Melbourne, April 1905. Editor, The Emu 1905-07. Belchera (Rose Robin) named after him 1912 and several subspecies of bird, including Pachyptila belcheri (1911) also named after him. Wrote Birds of the District of Geelong, Australia 1914 and Nyasaland Birds 1930. Fellow, Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union 1949.

Published resources

Online Resources

• National Library of Australia, 'Belcher, Charles Frederic', Trove, National Library of Australia and the Australian National Maritime Museum Darling Harbour, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1474276. Details

See also

• Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2001, 492 pp. Details