Background
De Bellaigue was born in 1931, son of Viscount Pierre de Bellaigue and Marie-Antoinette Willemin, and was educated at Wellington College, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained a Bachelor in 1954 (and Master of Arts in 1959).
De Bellaigue was born in 1931, son of Viscount Pierre de Bellaigue and Marie-Antoinette Willemin, and was educated at Wellington College, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained a Bachelor in 1954 (and Master of Arts in 1959).
He also attended the École du Louvre (Paris).
His was the first full-time appointment to the office, and he did much to professionalise the Royal Collection department after being made the Director of the Royal Collection in 1988. From 1954-1959, de Bellaigue worked for J Henry Schroeder and Company, and later joined the National Trust and worked for them at Waddesdon Manor 1960-1963, where he was Keeper of Collection 1962-1963. He joined the Royal Household in 1963, as Deputy Surveyor of the Queen"s Works of Artist
In 1972 he was promoted to Surveyor of the Queen"s Works of Art, and from 1996 was Surveyor Emeritus.
He held the positions of Surveyor of the Queen"s Works of Art and Director of the Royal Collection concurrently from 1988-1996. He was knighted as a Knight Commander (Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order) in 1986.
He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1992, and was also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. De Bellaigue died in 2013, aged 81, from undisclosed causes.
Geoffrey de Bellaigue was a member of the Executive Committee of the National Art Collections Fund from 1977, Honorary President of the French Porcelain Society from 1985, and a trustee of the Wallace Collection from 1998.