Explore: George Hutchins Bellasis

(1778 - 1822)

Soldier and amateur artist George Hutchins Bellasis was born in Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria; the eldest son of Major-General John Bellasis, Commander of the Forces and Colonel of Artillery at Bombay. He studied at Queen’s College, Oxford, before travelling to India to join the 19th Light Dragoons, with which three of his brothers also served. After suffering illness he departed for England in August 1804, disembarking at St. Helena, where he remained for eight months. After retiring from the army he built Holly Hill, a villa in Bowness-on-Windermere. In 1812 he briefly returned to St. Helena, before publishing a portfolio of six ‘Views of St. Helena’ in 1815. He died at Holly Hill, aged 44 and was survived by his wife and six children.