Pellew attended St Peter's College, Adelaide, playing in the cricket First XI, which he captained in 1918.

He made his first-class debut for South Australia in the Sheffield Shield match against Victoria at the end of February 1920.

[3] He was selected to tour New Zealand with the Australian team at the end of the season, but was not a success there, scoring only 52 runs in five matches.

[6] Pellew moved to Clare to work as a solicitor in 1923 and made himself unavailable for the state cricket team.

In the 1930s Pellew served as a member of the South Australian National Football League tribunal.