David James Bellamy OBE (18 January 1933 – 11 December 2019) was an English botanist, television presenter, author and environmental campaigner.
Bellamy was born in London to parents Winifred May (née Green) and Thomas Bellamy on 18 January 1933. He was raised in a Baptist family and retained a strong Christian faith throughout his life. As a child, he had hoped to be a ballet dancer, but he concluded that his rather large physique regrettably precluded him from pursuing the training.
Bellamy went to school in south London, attending Chatsworth Road Primary School in Cheam, Cheam Road Junior School, and Sutton County Grammar School, where he initially showed an aptitude for English literature and history; he then found his vocation because of an inspirational science teacher, studying zoology, botany, physics, and chemistry in the sixth form.[citation needed] He gained an honours degree in botany at Chelsea College of Science and Technology (now part of King's College London) in 1957 and a doctor of philosophy at Bedford College in 1960.

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