A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Bellairs, John Henry
BELLAIRS. (Lieut., 1813. f-p., 18; h-p., 26.)
John Henry Bellairs is brother of Lieut. W. T. Bellairs, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 29 Oct. 1803, as Midshipman, on board the Goliath 74, Capt. Chas. Brisbane, employed on the Home station, and, in May, 1805, accompanied that gallant officer into the Akethusa 38. Proceeding in the latter ship to the West Indies, he assisted, in company with the Anson, at the capture, 23 Aug. 1806, near the Havana, after a spirited action, in which the Arethusa had 2 men killed and 32 wounded, of the Pomona Spanish frigate, of 38 guns and 347 men, laden with specie and merchandize, and defended by a castle mounting 11 36-pounders, and a flotilla of 10 gun-boats, all of which were destroyed; and, in Jan. 1807, was present at the brilliant reduction of Curaçoa. In Oct. following Mr. Bellairs returned home, as a Supernumerary, in the Chichester store-ship, Capt. Jas. Tait; and after an attachment of a few weeks to the Aetna bomb, lying in the Thames, became Master’s Mate, in April, 1808, of the Bonne Citoyenne 20, Capts. John Thompson and Wm. Mounsey, under whom we find him engaged in active co-operation with the patriots on the coast of Spain. Joining, in June, 1809, the Caledonia 120, bearing the flags successively of Admiral Lord Gambler and of Rear-Admirals Fras. Pickmore and Sir Harry Neale, he commanded the gun-boats Nos. 1 and 4, of the red division, under Capts. Philip Carteret and Rich. Plummer Davies, during the ensuing expedition to the Scheldt; and, from April to Aug. 1810, at which period he passed his examination, was employed, as Master’s Mate, with the flotilla at the defence of Cadiz. He removed with Sir Harry Neale, in April, 1811, to the Boyne 98, from which ship he was transferred, on 12 June, as Acting-Lieutenant, to the Pompée 74, Capt. Sir Jas. Athol Wood, off L’Orient. Being superseded, however, in the following August, he served, as Midshipman, in the Ulysses 44, off Jersey and Lisbon, Impétueux 74, bearing the flags of Admirals Brown and Geo. Martin, and Stately 64, Capt. Chas. Inglis, until at length promoted, 30 Sept. 1813, into the San Juan 74, as Flag-Lieutenant to Rear-Admiral Sam. Hood Linzee, then at Gibraltar. He invalided home in March, 1814, and continued unemployed until 25 Sept. 1837, when he accepted an appointment in the Coast Guard, which he resigned in 1845. He has since been unemployed.
Lieut. Bellairs is the original inventor of a plan for distinguishing steam-vessels of all nations by a code of coloured lights. He is married, and has issue.