Herbert Belfield

Belfield was born in Dover, the son of Capt. William Belfield. Educated at Wellington College,[2] Belfield was commissioned into the Royal Munster Fusiliers in 1876.[3] He was promoted to captain on 20 May 1885, and to major on 1 February 1893. He took part in the Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War in 1895, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 25 March 1896 and to colonel on 18 December 1899.[4] With the outbreak of the Second Boer War (1899–1902), he was appointed Inspector General of the Imperial Yeomanry and Assistant Adjutant General to Lieutenant General Lord Methuen.[5] From January 1902 he held the local rank of brigadier general on the Staff in South Africa.[6] He was mentioned in despatches on 23 June 1902 by Lord Kitchener, Commander-in-Chief in South Africa during the latter part of the war,[7] and returned home in the SS Kinfauns Castle leaving Cape Town in early August 1902, after the war had ended.[8] For his service in the early part of the war he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the April 1901 South Africa Honours list (the award was dated to 29 November 1900;[9] he only received the actual decoration from King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October 1902).[10] He was further awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in the October 1902 South Africa Honours list.[11]

Belfield was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General for 1st Army Corps on 11 December 1902,[2] Commander of 4th Infantry Brigade in 1903 and General Officer Commanding 4th Division in 1907[12] before retiring in 1914.[5] He was also Colonel of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment from 1909 to 1914.[5]

In retirement Belfield became Director of Prisoner of war work, negotiating prisoner exchanges and improvements in the treatment of prisoners[13] throughout the First World War.[5] There is a chair dedicated to his memory at York Minster Stoneyard.[14]

In 1882, he married Emily Mary Binney, eldest daughter of Rev. Hibbert Binney, the Bishop of Nova Scotia; she died a year later. In 1888, he married Evelyn Mary Taylor; they had two daughters.[1][2]