James Bellamy
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| James Bellamy | |
|---|---|
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| First appearance | "Board Wages" |
| Last appearance | "All the King's Horses" |
| Portrayed by | Simon Williams |
| Episode count | 37 |
| Information | |
| Date of birth | 1882 or 1884 |
| Date of death | October 1929 |
| Spouse(s) | Hazel Forrest |
Major The Honourable James Rupert Bellamy MC (1882 or 1884 – October 1929) is a fictional character in the ITV period drama Upstairs, Downstairs, that was originally broadcast for five series from 1971 to 1975. He was portrayed by Simon Williams.[1]
James Bellamy is one of the main characters in Upstairs, Downstairs, appearing in 37 episodes, from the third episode of the first series "Board Wages" to the penultimate episode of the fifth and final series "All the King's Horses".[1] An arrogant and selfish individual, James is his mother's favourite, and he never truly gets over her death on the Titanic in 1912. After a few unsuccessful relationships, James marries Hazel Forrest, but their happiness does not last and she dies in the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. He serves in the Great War, but is seriously wounded on the Western Front in 1917, and after that never finds a purpose in life or a true love. He commits suicide in 1929 following the Wall Street Crash.
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[edit] Early life
James Rupert Bellamy is born in summer 1882 or 1884, the first child of Richard, a Conservative MP and Lady Marjorie Bellamy, the daughter of the 12th Earl of Southwold. He has a sister Elizabeth who is born in 1886. James goes to Eton and then attends the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and by 1904 he has been commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Life Guards in the British Army.[1] James is his mother's favourite, while he has a difficult relationship with his father.
[edit] Affair with Sarah
In about 1908, James, by now a Captain, starts an affair with the former house maid Sarah, who has now become a music hall singer and she attends Elizabeth's wedding. Soon, Sarah becomes pregnant by James, who is in debt of around £1350, meaning that Sarah gives him some of her earnings. James's regiment contacts his parents about his debts and he then tells them everything. The family solicitor Sir Geoffrey Dillon arrangs for Sarah to be sent to Southwold and for James to be sent to India with the Sind Horse Regiment, although Lady Marjorie is furious with the idea of sending James abroad. While he is abroad, in the early months of 1909 Sarah returns to Eaton Place, fed up with Southwold. The same day she returns she gives birth to a boy, who dies after a few minutes.
[edit] Hazel
When James returns from India in May 1910, he brings home with him a well-meaning middle-class Major's daughter called Phyllis Kingman, who he has become engaged to. However, the engagement does not last as he later admits he does not love her, nor thinks she would have fitted in.[1] In March 1912, Richard hires a secretary, Hazel Forrest and James instantly takes an interest in her. While his parents are away, he insists she lunches with him in the Dining Room. After months of courting, James proposes, but she turns him down. This causes Hazel's father, Arthur Forrest, to come and see James. He tells him how Hazel has been married before, to a drunk who had beaten her.[1] They divorced and Hazel had moved back in with her parents. James asks Hazel again, and after talking, she accepts. They marry in late 1912 or early 1913, and honeymoon in Paris.
The middle-class Hazel has problems adapting to the upper-class world that James lives in. On a hunting weekend to Somerby, Lord Newbury's country house, the other guests encourage her to surprise James and join the hunt, something she has never done before. However, Diana Newbury, a childhood friend of James, had secretly swapped the horses and gives Hazel a horse that jolts and runs away with Hazel, who escapes largely uninjured. She and James then have an argument, as he feels humiliated. This, on top of Major Cochrane-Danby saying James and Diana are sleeping together, leads Hazel to flee Somerby with Rose. James follows her back to London when he finds out she has gone, and they soon make up. In mid-1914, Hazel suffers a miscarriage. By this time, James had left the Army and got a job working for Jardines in London, and plans to transfer to India in 1915 until the Great War intervenes. James and Hazel's relationship quickly deteriorates, and by August 1914, they are sleeping in separate bedrooms. James has also grown increasingly fond of Georgina, his father's ward, who had arrived at Eaton Place in December 1913.
[edit] The Great War
As the start of the Great War approaches, James is called back to service as he is still on the Army's Reserve of Officers. He serves at the Western Front and fights in the Second Battle of Ypres. After this, in April 1915, he returns home on leave, and during a dinner at which Sir Geoffrey Dillon is present, makes comments about the incompentent running of the war. These comments soon end up in The Daily Mail, and while the comments are unattributed, it is soon worked out who must have said them and James is transferred to become General Staff Officer, a post miles behind the front line. This is must against James's wishes. The following year, while again home on leave, Hazel sees how unhappy he is and secretly persuades his regimental commander and asks the colonel to transfer James back to the Front Line. The colonel agrees and James is reassigned to the Guards Division of the Machine Gun Corps.
When Georgina arrives in France as a VAD nurse in June 1916, she arrives at her hospital and meets James, who is now a Major.[1] They spend the day together, and before they part at the end of the day, they kiss. For his part in the Battle of the Somme, James is awarded the Military Cross. In October 1917, James is reported "missing believed killed" but after ten days he turns up seriously wounded at Georgina's hospital. Against Georgina's advice, Richard and Hazel take him back to London in a private ambulance. When back home and talking to Richard he tells him about his ten days missing; a German officer was about to shoot him when he was injured in a shell hole, but for some unknown reason, he did not, so James shot him. James also says that he felt his mother's presence while in the shell hole. James sees no further active service for the rest of the war. On 8 November 1918, days before its end, Hazel dies during the Spanish flu pandemic.
[edit] Post-war years
After the war, James has difficulty knowing what to do following his final departure from the army. In February 1920, he writes a letter to The Times regarding the treatment of former soldiers. He is then persuaded on the strength of the letter, to stand as Conservative candidate in an upcoming by-election in the Docklands seat of Rotherhithe East, a safe Labour seat. While he loses the election, he increases the majority and Conservative Central Office want him to stand again. However, he has no further interest in politics. A chance encounter with Diana Newbury, his former flame and wife of his best friend, in May 1923 leads to them going to stay in a country cottage together for a week. They then decide to elope, however, a note left by Diana to Bunny is read earlier than expected and before they can leave Britain, Richard finds out and insists James returns to London. While Bunny says that Diana may divorce him, James and her agree that time has moved on and they could not live together.
In 1927 or 1928, while holidaying in Scotland, James tells Georgina that he loves her. But she says that she does not love in that way, and early the next morning he leaves without saying goodbye to anybody. He then goes to Liverpool and sails to New York to stay with Elizabeth, who had moved out there in about 1911. James does not return until October 1929, and has more money thanks to the stock market. However, on 24 October, the stock market crashes and James loses all his money. Days before he had encouraged Rose to invest the £1200 she had received from Gregory Wilmot in his will, and she too loses all her money. He and Richard have a heated argument about this, as James cannot repay Rose the money she has lost, and how James has failed to make anything of himself despite his upbringing. James privately goes to a hotel in Maidenhead and commits suicide by shooting himself.
[edit] References
- Richard Marson, "Inside UpDown - The Story of Upstairs, Downstairs", Kaleidoscope Publishing, 2005
- Updown.org.uk - Upstairs, Downstairs Fansite
