Bellingham was born on 29 March 1955 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He is the son of Arthur Henry Bellingham and his wife June Marion Cloudesley Smith. He was privately educated at Wellesley House School in the town of Broadstairs in Kent, followed by Eton College in Berkshire. He went on to study at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he received a law degree in 1977. During his time at Cambridge, he was a member of Cambridge University Liberal Club and served as Joint Master of the Cambridge University Draghounds. Bellingham also took a short service commission in the Guards for a year between school and university. He trained at the Inns of Court School of Law, and joined the Middle Temple in 1978 and practised as a barrister for eight years. Bellingham is variously described as a direct descendant of John Bellingham, Spencer Perceval's assassin, or as being from the same family. In 1997 The Independent noted the historical coincidence that the General election candidate for the Referendum Party, Roger Percival claimed to be a descendant of the slain Prime Minister. The paper had correctly predicted that Percival's intervention could hand the seat to Labour.
Parliamentary career
Bellingham first entered Parliament at the 1983 election after winning the seat for North West Norfolk, having defeated the incumbent MP Christopher Brocklebank-Fowler, who in 1981 was the only Conservative to defect to the newly formed SDP. He held his seat until being defeated during the 1997 election. He contested his former seat at the election in 2001, and won it back. He was re-elected in 2005 with a 9000 vote majority, and again in 2010 with a majority of 14,810. He was re-elected at the 2015 general election and 2017 general election. Bellingham was appointed as a Shadow Minister for Trade and Industry in July 2002, before becoming an OppositionWhip in May 2005. From November 2006 until the 2010 general election he was a Shadow Minister for the Department of Constitutional Affairs. He won the North West Norfolk seat in the 2010 election, and was appointed a Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the coalition government within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office covering; 'Overseas Territories, Africa, United Nations, economic issues, conflict resolution and climate change'. In 2009, whilst debating the Queen's speech, he was described as "looking uncomfortable" when MPs joked about his distant ancestor John Bellingham, who assassinated Spencer Perceval. Bellingham later stated: "I wouldn't bring it up in conversation that I'm a descendant – or a near-descendant – of a murderer of a prime minister. But I don't try to deny it". On 29 September 2011, while quoting Bellingham, the Antigua Observer described him as the United Kingdom's Minister of Overseas Territories. While in Antigua, Bellingham had commented on the surprise decision of former Premier of BermudaEwart Brown to provide asylum to four former Uyghur captives in Guantanamo.
"This is something that we weren’t consulted on by the last administration. We have spoken to the United States about it — it's our understanding that the arrangement was not to be permanent and we're looking to the US State Department to find a permanent solution. We're working with them to try and achieve that."
In 2014, a mining company called Pathfinder Minerals appointed Bellingham as non-executive chairman 18 months after he stopped being Minister for Africa. It was reported that Bellingham was earning £4,000 per month for his work with Pathfinder and that he had lobbied on their behalf whilst working as Minister for Africa. The Daily Telegraph reported that the case raised concerns 'of a revolving door between Whitehall and the private sector, with ministers benefiting from contacts they made in office'. However, there was no suggestion of wrongdoing, and all the work has been declared in line with Parliamentary rules. Bellingham is a Director of Longborough Capital of Witney, Environmental Polymer Technologies of Shaftesbury, and Arc Fund Management. As a backbench MP, Bellingham was paid £6448.25 per month. In The Register of Members' Financial Interests as at 21 January 2019, Bellingham declared additional income amounting to £9,583 per month from four jobs:
Non-executive director of Developing Markets Associates Ltd, a global consultancy and investment conference organiser – £2,500 a month
Non-executive Chairman of Pathfinder Minerals PLC, an AIM listed mining company – £2,083 per month
Senior Adviser to J. Stern & Co. LLP, a fund management company – £2,500 per month
Non-executive Chairman of Clifton Africa Ltd, a private company specialising in housing and infrastructure construction in developing countries – £2,500 per month
Personal life
Bellingham lives in Congham, which is situated within his former constituency, and London. He married Emma Whiteley in August 1993 in Horsham, and they have a son named Jamie. Bellingham employed his wife as his Parliamentary Assistant. The practice of MPs employing family members has been criticised by some sections of the media on the lines that it promotes nepotism. Although MPs who were first elected in 2017 have been banned from employing family members, the restriction is not retrospective – meaning that Bellingham's employment of his wife is lawful.
