At the end of the 19th century, an Anglo-French writer produced a tongue-in-cheek book of advice for youngsters called The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts, written in rhyming couplets. His name was Hilaire Belloc and he was responsible for both that volume and also for the similar book, Cautionary Tales for Children, that was published in 1907. As a warning to those children who insist on being naughty, there is the character of Jim, a boy who ran away from his nurse, and was eaten by a lion. Then, for those who may tend to tell fibs, there is ‘Matilda, who told lies and was burned to death’ and many more. Belloc, however, was so much more than just a children’s author, as some research reveals.

Born on 27 July 1870 in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France, he was named Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc by his parents. His father, Frenchman Louis Belloc, was a lawyer in France and his mother was an English writer. Life was not always easy for the Belloc family as misfortunes befell his parents during his childhood. There was the dramatic downturn in fortunes when the stock market crashed and wiped out most of his father’s shareholdings; and then an early death for Louis.

Louis Belloc and Elizabeth (Bessie) Rayner Parkes had married in Marylebone, Middlesex in 1867 as revealed in the records on TheGenealogist, and they lived most of the next few years in France. Tragically, just five years into the marriage, Louis died and his young widow was forced to return with her children to her homeland.

This early death, aged 42, of Belloc’s father earned a mention in The Times on 2 September 1872 and the piece gives us information about the literary credentials of the family. We read that Bessie was ‘formerly so well known in this country’ and that his mother was recognised in French literary circles as the translator of the Anglo-Irish children’s and adults’ author Maria Edgeworth’s works and of some of the writings of Charles Dickens. Perhaps it is no surprise, therefore, that both Hilaire Belloc and his elder sister, Marie Belloc (later Lowndes), became writers. Belloc’s sister warrants her own entry in the Who’s Who 1899 that can be found when searching in TheGenealogist’s Biographical Records collection.

Belloc’s mother, Bessie, was one of the most prominent English feminists and campaigners for women’s rights in Victorian times. Recognised as a poet, essayist and journalist, on her maternal side she was the granddaughter of the scientist and Unitarian minister Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) and so was brought up a Unitarian until, in 1864, she converted to Roman Catholicism.

With the death of Louis and their relocation to England, Hilaire Belloc and his siblings grew up in Slindon, Sussex – an area that he wrote about with fondness in his poems such as ‘West Sussex Drinking Song’, ‘The South Country’, and ‘Ha’nacker Mill’. With his Roman Catholic background it is no surprise that he was sent to a Catholic school. The Oratory School in Edgbaston, Birmingham had been founded by Cardinal John Henry Newman in 1859 as a Catholic alternative to Eton; it was situated in those days on the Hagley Road in the leafy suburbs of Birmingham.

A lovestruck hike across America ends in rejection
While best known as a Franco-English writer and historian of the early 20th century, Belloc was also recognised as an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and as a British member of Parliament.

Using the records that are available on TheGenealogist, we find him in the 1911 census. The great advantage of using TheGenealogist for a search of this census is that not only can we see an image of the return but from under the transcript we are also able to see the exact location of the Belloc’s home. From the preview map we can then click to view the house pinpointed on Map Explorer, allowing us to view a number of different georeferenced maps varying from modern street maps and satellite views to historical Ordnance Survey map layers. These reveal that Kingsland sat in Shipley, close to a mill and to the south of Horsham.

The nationality column on the image of the census return reveals that the author and journalist had been registered as a British subject in 1901 and that his wife, Elodie, had been born in California, USA. Taking this as a starting point and researching into their story it transpires that in 1890 Belloc had met Elodie Hogan, an American living in northern California, and the couple had married in 1896. The path to marriage, however, involved a protracted six-year courtship.

Accounts online tell us that Elodie’s mother had not been keen on the match, wanting her daughter to dedicate her life to God as a nun. Belloc had originally met Elodie when she, her sister and her mother had been touring Europe. Lovestruck, an impoverished Belloc had then crossed the Atlantic to court Elodie and, when the money for train fares ran out, he had hiked many miles on foot across America. Rejected by her, the dispirited Belloc returned to England and then in 1891 joined the French Army for a year of military service as required of a French citizen. While he was in France, however, Elodie’s mother died; but this didn’t mean that they were free to marry as she still held a desire to serve God. Elodie entered the religious community but it became clear to her after a month that her vocation was not strong enough and so she left.

Meanwhile, after Belloc’s military service had ended and with him suffering a broken heart, he took the entrance exam to Oxford and matriculated to Balliol College in January of 1893. Securing a first-class honours degree in June of 1895, he graduated as a history scholar. It was in the same month, but a year later, that he and Elodie finally got married in Napa, California.

Education records are often a fruitful line for research. In Belloc’s case TheGenealogist’s records reveal him in the 1833–1933 Balliol College Registers for Oxford University. This gives us useful information about his life and publications as well as including an interesting snippet. Belloc and another student had walked from Carfax to Marble Arch in 11½ hours – Carfax being a junction in Oxford near to his college. Having previously hiked across the USA, this Oxford to London journey was a considerably shorter walk for him.

The 1911 census had noted that Belloc had been naturalised and a search of TheGenealogist finds us his naturalisation record. This reveals that rather than it being in 1901, as written in the 1911 census, the actual date would appear to have been 12 March 1902. Belloc’s residence then was at 104 Cheyne Walk, in Chelsea. It is also interesting to see that in this record there is anglicisation of some, but not all of his forenames – Pierre becomes Peter, but René retains the acute accent.

Belloc, as we see in the Balliol College Registers, became the MP for South Salford for 1906–1910 and perhaps his political ambitions had prompted his citizenship application. Other records useful for finding people that became members of Parliament are the Trade, Residential & Telephone Directories on TheGenealogist. A search finds Hilaire Belloc recorded in the 1908 Kelly’s Post Office Directory in its Parliamentary section which tells us that his club was the Reform and that he was in the House of Commons at the same time as Wedgwood Benn, father of the future MP Tony Benn. At this time both Belloc and Benn were members of the Liberal Party, though Benn would cross the house to join Labour.

After leaving politics in 1910 Belloc then became head of the English Department at East London College until 1913. Reports on the website of Queen Mary University London, which the college later became, suggest that he was overlooked for professorship in 1913 and was replaced. The next year sadly saw the death of Elodie at only 45, so for the rest of his life, another 40 years, he wore morning clothes in her memory.

With a jump forward in time and searching the 1939 Register, we can see that Belloc is still residing at Kingswood. Listed as a widower he is living with his married daughter Eleanor P. Jebb and her husband Reginald Jebb, the editor of the Weekly Review. In this year we can find he took a voyage to Lisbon on 6 January 1939. Passenger lists not only tell us about journeys that our ancestors may have made but they can also provide us with address details. In the case of Hilaire Belloc there are several passenger lists to consult on TheGenealogist that confirm the author lived at Kingsland, Shipley, Horsham.

Words on war
A glance at the Newspaper & Magazine records on TheGenealogist allows us to see a number of mentions of Belloc, especially extolling his writings on conflict in the early years of the First World War. An example of a positive review is one published by The Sphere in June 1915 regarding his A General Sketch of the European War. We can also see an advertisement in the same publication for another of his books.

As the war proceeded, Belloc’s eldest son Lieutenant Louis Belloc, an army officer, was tragically killed in action. We are able to find him in a number of the Military Records at TheGenealogist. First we discover him named in the Army Lists as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers (RE) and as an ‘hon. flying officer’ in the September 1919 Royal Air Force Lists, having transferred into the Royal Flying Corps that became part of the RAF in 1918. As it took time to compile these Air Force Lists, his inclusion in the 1919 edition after he had been killed in August 1918 would not be surprising. The Casualty Lists records reveal that Louis had been posted as missing in the official list for 11 September 1918 that was published in The Times – presumably the authorities had yet to discover that he had died and were optimistically hoping he would turn up at this stage. His death, however, is to be found recorded in Soldiers that Died in the Great War.

Belloc’s son also features in a number of other military records that can be found on TheGenealogist, including the Registers of the Arras Memorial, Rolls of Honour and in the Officers that Died in the Great War.

Come the Second World War and Belloc would sadly lose another son. Temporary Captain Peter Gilbert Marie Sebastian Belloc fell ill with pneumonia while on active service with the Royal Marines in Scotland. We are able to discover his passing aged only 36 recorded in TheGenealogist’s Overseas WW2 Deaths for Naval Officers collection. It tells us that Peter Belloc had been serving in the 101 Royal Marine Brigade at the time.

In 1941, when he was 71, Hilaire Belloc suffered a stroke and never recovered from its effects. In the same year, he also suffered burns and shock after falling on his fireplace. He died on 16 July 1953 at Mount Alvernia Nursing Home in Guildford, Surrey at the age of 82 and we can find his death recorded in the death records on TheGenealogist. By using the wide range of resources that this website has to offer, we have been able to find some very interesting records that add to the family tale of Hilaire Belloc and members of his family. {