Bellairs, Carlyon Wilfroy, 1871-1955

Naval officer, politician and author Carlyon Bellairs was educated at the Royal Naval College and aboard H.M.S. Britannia. He entered the Royal Navy in 1884, became a midshipman in 1886, and received a special promotion to Lieutenant in 1891 after obtaining first class marks on all his certificates. He invented many devices adopted by the Royal Navy, but was obliged to retire in 1902 due to the failing of his eyesight. His second career as a Member of Parliament began in 1906 when he was returned for King's Lynn; he represented this constituency until 1910, and Maidstone from 1915 to 1931. He was also the member for Lewisham on the London County Council. Bellairs was active on a number of important Parliamentary Committees. Though offered a baronetcy in 1927, he declined on principle, for he objected to political honours. In 1954 he founded and endowed, in memory of his wife, McGill's Bellairs Biological Research Institute in Barbados. Bellairs also wrote poetry: The Sowing and the Reaping, 1919; Ghosts of Parliament, 1929; and a history of the Battle of Jutland.