Lady Marjorie Bellamy

The Lady Marjorie Helen Sybil Bellamy (nee Talbot-Carey; 6 May 1860 or 12 July 1864 – 15 April 1912) was a fictional character in the ITV drama Upstairs, Downstairs. She was portrayed by Rachel Gurney.

Lady Marjorie was born on 6 May 1860, or according to another episode 12 July 1864, at Southwold, Wiltshire in the home of her wealthy parents, Walter Talbot-Carey, 12th Earl of Southwold and Mabel, the Countess of Southwold. The Earl was a major influence in the Conservative Party. She had one brother, Hugo, Viscount Ashby, who later became 13th Earl of Southwold. As well as this, she had a paternal aunt and uncle and cousin, who succeeded Hugo as Earl of Southwold.

Despite parental objections, she ended up marrying the younger son of a country parson, Richard Bellamy in 1880 and they lived rent free in a grand Victorian townhouse which Lady Marjorie's father the Earl of Southwold owned the lease, 165, Eaton Place in London's fashionable Belgravia. They had two children, James (born 1881) and Elizabeth (born 1887). Shortly before their marriage, Richard had become a Conservative MP with the help of her father.

Lady Marjorie was portrayed as elegant and having something of the hauteur of women of her age and class but also as basically kind. She maintained social and class distinctions at all times and, unlike her upright husband, is less concerned about absolute moral values than appearances.

In the summer of 1906, she had an affair with a much younger man, Charles Victor Hammond, a Captain in the Khyber Rifles and a friend of her son. After the affair had been going on for some time (presumed secret but never was), he asked her to run off with him but she refused as she realised her duty to her family. Her lover was later, by then a Major, killed during a battle in India in 1909. He was awarded the Victoria Cross. In a later episode, a man (Mr.Dooley) who had been Hammond's military batman (personal attendant) showed up with a packet of love letters she had written to him. Rebuffed at the front door of 165 Eaton Place by Mr. Hudson (the butler) as an "unwashed Irish vagrant", he went around to the mews to make himself agreeable to Thomas the chauffeur. In a sting attempt by the chauffeur, who was given the letters for the purpose of negotiating with Lady Marjorie, monies were extorted from both Bellamys, each unknown to the other, with the convoluted result that ended with Mr. Dooley in jail (on an unrelated charge) and all monies restored to the individuals—with Thomas receiving a gratuity from each of the Bellamys. She was always having trouble with her two children. Elizabeth was a wild child and flirted with socialism, and she married in 1908 a man who failed to consummate their marriage (the story line all but confirms his homosexuality though Lawrence had no problem sleeping with Evelyn Larkin, Elizabeth's bohemian/radical friend), and she had an affair with his publisher at the behest of her husband. As a result, Elizabeth became pregnant and delivered a daughter, Lucy Elizabeth, her marriage was ended, and her husband dispatched to the continent "with a modest pension" from the Bellamys "to keep him happy" (and quiet) about the sordid affair. In 1908, James, who was always her favourite, had an affair with the housemaid Sarah and she ended up expecting. James was sent to India. Sarah was shipped off to Southwold, but returned to Eaton Place in May 1909 on her own and unhappy, saying "No one said anything to me one day to the next!" Sarah was in labour while the King was dining upstairs, and the baby boy was still-born.

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