John Bellair was educated at Scotch College and the University of Melbourne. In the Second World War he served in the Australian Army as commander of a machine gun company. After the War he farmed for many years in the Romsey area north of Melbourne. He wrote The School That Was: A History of the Berwick Grammar School, 1882-1928 [1993?], In Hearn's Footsteps: Journeys around the Life of Lafcadio Hearn (1994) and books on the Second World War, including Amateur Soldier: An Australian Machine Gunner's Memories of World War II (1984).