I think you have hit the jackpot here. George Belt had an affair with a very grande dame indeed, Dora Monterfiore. I am doing a short biog of her and have dug up a certain amount about Belt. He is the correct Belt - no doubt at all. You can find out about DBM on
http://www.marxists.org/archive/montefiore/index.htm and about the affair in Christine Collette, Socialism and Scandal: the Sexual Politics of the Early Labour Movement, History Workshop, 23 (1987:Spring) p.102-111. I cannot find this Collette woman, no-one in academe seems to know where she is, last heard of in France.
It occurred over the years 1898-1906 for in 1898 she went to help with the Clarion van that toured the north of England bringing speakers on Socialism to many small and large towns in the region. Part of the Clarion team included George Belt (1865-1930) from Hull, a ‘well built, good looking’ married man with 3 children, 14 years younger than her, a bricklayer’s labourer which was a most wearying job in a dangerous industry. In brief there was an affair which ended disastrously since his wife intercepted a letter from her to Belt in 1899 and passed it on to his doctor, a member of the ILP, treating her husband for some sort of depression. This reached the local ILP and was mulled over by the entire miserable, pious lot in the local branch as it was ‘a remarkable letter for a lady of good social position to write to a bricklayer’s labourer’. Montefiore had the air of a very grande dame indeed but, far from a great lady having a bit of rough, their sentiments seem to have been totally genuine and both she and Belt suffered great heartache because of this and it seems for some time the affair was never even consummated. But Ramsay Macdonald and his wife became involved and faced with an unpleasant whispering campaign Montefiore threatened to sue and forced £120 out of Macdonald for which she was never forgiven by him or his wife. That put paid to any possibility of George Belt becoming an MP in the ILP interest. This pious, smug, self-satisfied man later wrote in letters to others about the affair and the possibility of Belt becoming a candidate, that it was ‘a simple disgrace that such men should be allowed to pose as public persons’, and ‘I am still strongly of the opinion that unless we weed out these moral scallywags we had better close our doors altogether’ and to another individual ‘I was informed that you were particularly interested in the keeping of our movement pure and above board. ….. I regret my mistake’. The affair may finally to have come to an end in about 1906 if not earlier.
There is a lot more that I can add. PLease write to me at my email address which you can find on the Marxist Internet Website.
Ted C
