Charles Frederic Belcher

Sir Charles Frederic Belcher OBE (1876–1970) was an Australian lawyer, author, British colonial jurist and amateur ornithologist.

Born in Geelong, Victoria, C.F. Belcher was a son of G.F. Belcher, a former member of the Victorian Legislative Council. He was called to the bar first in Melbourne, and then, in 1909, at Gray's Inn, London. He entered Trinity College (University of Melbourne) in 1894, where he studied Law.^[1]

For much of his life he served the British Colonial Service in Africa and elsewhere. He was variously a magistrate in Uganda, Assistant Judge in Zanzibar, Puisne Judge in Kenya, Member of the Appeals Court of East Africa, Attorney General and later High Court Judge of Nyasaland, Chief Justice of Cyprus (1927–1930) and President of the Appeal Court of the West Indies. In 1930, he was appointed Chief Justice of Trinidad and Tobago, an office he held for the next seven years.^[2]

In June 1931 he received a knighthood in the King's Birthday honours.^[3]

He was a founding member of both the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in 1901 and the Bird Observers Club in 1905. He was elected a Fellow of the RAOU in 1949.

Works

• Belcher, Charles F. (1914). The Birds of the District of Geelong, Australia. W.J. Griffiths: Geelong.
• Belcher, Charles Frederic. (1930). The Birds of Nyasaland. Technical Press: London.

Notes

1. “Personal”, The Horsham Times [Vic.], 9 June 1931, p. 4.
2. The London Gazette: no. 33658. p. 6945. 4 November 1930. Retrieved 24 December 2009.
3. The London Gazette, no. 33722 (2 June 1931): 3624.

References

• Chisholm, A.H. (1970). Obituary. Sir Charles Belcher. Emu 70: 91-92.
• Robin, Libby. (2001). The Flight of the Emu: a hundred years of Australian ornithology 1901-2001. Carlton, Vic. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 0-522-84987-3