Walford Bellairs entered the Royal Naval College in 1809, and the Royal Navy three years later, serving on the ship Asia; he was commissioned in 1819. He was employed in 1842-1845 as Admiralty Agent in the Packet Service, on the West Indies route; later he served in the same capacity in the Far East, aboard the P. & O.’s first mail steamer to operate beyond India, the Lady Mary Wood. Bellairs sailed from Point de Galle, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) via Penang to Hong Kong, arriving on 21 February 1846 and setting off on the return journey a week later. He made several voyages between these ports, on the Lady Mary Wood and (in 1847) the Pekin. Later that year he returned to England, where he died on 11 September 1850
Source Martyn Gregory Catalogue
