Belfield was born in
Dover, the son of Capt. William Belfield. Educated at
Wellington College, Belfield was
commissioned into the
Royal Munster Fusiliers in 1876. 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. 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. From January 1902 he held the local rank of
brigadier general on the staff in South Africa. 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, and returned home in the
SS Kinfauns Castle leaving
Cape Town in early August 1902, after the war had ended. 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; he only received the actual decoration from King
Edward VII at
Buckingham Palace on 24 October 1902). He was further awarded the
Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in the October 1902 South Africa Honours list. Belfield was appointed assistant adjutant-general for
1st Army Corps on 11 December 1902, commander of
4th Infantry Brigade in 1903 and
general officer commanding (GOC)
4th Division in 1907 before being promoted to lieutenant general in August 1912 and retiring in 1914. to 1914. negotiating prisoner exchanges and improvements in the treatment of prisoners throughout the
First World War. ==Family==