Sir Charles Frederic Belcher OBE (11 July 1876 – 7 February 1970) was an Australian

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicit ...

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

, British colonial

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the U ...

, and amateur

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

Biography

Born in

Geelong Geelong ( ) ( Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the south eastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, C. F. Belcher was a son of G. F. Belcher, a former member of the

Legislative Council of Victoria The Victorian Legislative Council (VLC) is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative ...

. He was educated at

Geelong Grammar School , motto_translation = 1 Corinthians 1:30: "For us, Christ was made wisdom"( 1 Corinthians 1:30: Christ, who has been made for us in wisdom) , city = Corio, Victoria , country = Australia , coordinates = , ...

, and entered

Trinity College, Melbourne Trinity College is the oldest residential college of the University of Melbourne, the first university in the colony of Victoria, Australia. The college was opened in 1872 on a site granted to the Church of England by the government of Victori ...

in 1894, where he studied law. He was first called to the bar in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

in 1902. In 1907 he moved to London, England to enroll at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...

, and was called to the bar in 1909. For much of his life he served the

British Colonial Service The Colonial Service, also known as His/Her Majesty's Colonial Service and replaced in 1954 by Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS), was the British government service that administered most of Britain's overseas possessions, under the aut ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and elsewhere. He served variously as Magistrate in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The ...

(1914), Assistant Judge in

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islan ...

, Puisne Judge in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, Member of the Appeals Court of East Africa, Attorney General (1920-1923) and later High Court Judge (1924-1927) of

Nyasaland Nyasaland () was a British protectorate located in Africa that was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Between 1953 and 1963, Nyasaland was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasala ...

, and

Chief Justice of Cyprus The Chief Justice of Cyprus was the head of the Supreme Court of Cyprus until 1961. The administration of Cyprus was taken over by the British government, following the Russo-Turkish War, under the Convention of 4 June 1878. Charles Alfred Cook ...

(1927–1930). In 1930, he was appointed

Chief Justice of Trinidad and Tobago The Chief Justice of Trinidad and Tobago is the highest judge of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and presides over its Supreme Court of Judicature. He is appointed by a common decision of the president, the prime minister and the leader of the ...

and President of the Appeal Court of the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

, offices he held until his retirement in 1937. He was a founding member of both the

Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), now part of BirdLife Australia, was Australia's largest non-government, non-profit, bird conservation organisation. It was founded in 1901 to promote the study and conservation of the native b ...

(RAOU) in 1901, and the Bird Observers Club in 1905. He was elected a Fellow of the RAOU in 1949. In June 1931, he received a knighthood in the 1931 King's Birthday Honours as a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are ...

. His son, engineer William Redmond Morrison Belcher, served during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...

as a driver for the British Medical Aid Committee and later as a militiaman in the ''

Centuria ''Centuria'' (, plural ''centuriae'') is a Latin term (from the stem ''centum'' meaning one hundred) denoting military units originally consisting of 100 men. The size of the century changed over time, and from the first century BC through most ...

Malatesta''.

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
'. C. Lockwood & Son: London. *Belcher, Charles Frederic. (1944).
Genealogical notes relating to William Belcher of Kells (1730-1798) and his descendants
'. W. Boyd & Co: Nairobi.

Notes

References

*Robin, Libby. (2001). ''The Flight of the Emu: a hundred years of Australian ornithology 1901-2001''. Carlton, Vic. Melbourne University Press.

External links

* 1876 births 1970 deaths Australian emigrants to South Africa Australian Knights Bachelor Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Trinity College (University of Melbourne) Australian ornithologists Chief justices of Trinidad and Tobago East Africa Protectorate judges Nyasaland judges British Cyprus judges Sultanate of Zanzibar judges Uganda Protectorate judges British colonial judges in the Americas British Trinidad and Tobago judges Attorneys-General of Nyasaland People educated at Geelong Grammar School {{Australia-ornithologist-stub