Early Life
Elizabeth is born in 1886 to Richard, a Conservative MP, and Lady Marjorie Bellamy, the daughter of the 12th Earl of Southwold, a prominent Conservative politician. She finishes her education at Frau Beck's Finishing School, in Dresden, Germany in 1905, and has her coming out ball in May that year at Londonderry House. She was due to be presented to the King and Queen by her Aunt Kate (Lady Castleton), but runs away from the Ball. Inverting the situation with James, she is close to her father, while having a somewhat strained relationship with her mother (with whom she shares her haughty behavior, though Elizabeth lacks her mother's kindness or maternal feeling).
In December 1905, she falls in love with Baron Klaus von Rimmer, a German who turns out to be a homosexual. He flees Eaton Place with the footman Alfred (when their affair is discovered by Rose), before the police arrive to arrest him. Not wishing Elizabeth to know the real reason for his departure, she is told that he is a spy.
Elizabeth is a member of the Young Women's Christian Fellowship, and while working with them she finds the former housemaid Sarah, and saves her from poverty by employing her as the Bellamy's scullery maid.
Read more about this topic: Elizabeth Bellamy
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