Born at Middlesbrough, he won a scholarship at Pembroke College, Cambridge, took first-class honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos, part I, 1911, and won the Shuter scholarship at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He qualified just after war broke out in 1914, and served for four years as a surgeon in the Royal Navy. He was created OBE for his service. After the war he settled in general practice at Bedford in partnership with W H Miller FRCS, but soon specialised as a laryngologist. In 1930 he was appointed ear nose and throat surgeon to the County Hospital and subsequently to the General Hospital, where he became consulting surgeon in 1949. Bellwood married in 1921 Florence Violet Cooper. They usually spent their holidays walking on the Yorkshire moors. Bellwood became ill in 1940 but continued to practise. He died at his home, 4 De Parys Avenue, Bedford, on 17 April 1955, aged 64, survived by his wife and their two daughters.