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Hazel Patricia Bellamy (née Forrest, previously O'Connell; C. May 1886 – 8 November 1918 ) is a fictional character in the ITV Drama '' Upstairs, Downstairs '' that originally aired for Five Series from 1971 to 1975. She was portrayed by Meg Wynn Owen . Hazel Forrest enters ''Upstairs, Downstairs'' as secretary to Richard Bellamy, and James takes an instant liking to her, and within two years they marry. However, the class divide between them, her middle-class and James upper-class, often causes conflicts and disagreements and during the war both see other people. Hazel is particularly close to Richard, Georgina and Rose, but Hudson never truly accepts a middle-class women as mistress of the house. Hazel dies from the Spanish Flu Pandemic days before the end of the First World War in 1918. EARLY LIFE Hazel Forrest grows up in middle-class Putney , the daughter of a clerk, and in the spring of 1902 she marries, in Newcastle , a postal clerk called Patrick O'Connell. They live in Newcastle, and O'Connell quickly becomes an Alcoholic and starts having affairs. He also attacks her, and eventually an isolated Hazel leaves him and returns to her parents. A Divorce is arranged, and in 1904 the family move to Wimbledon because of the shame of a divorce. Hazel then, using her maiden name, gets a Typewriter and becomes a Secretary . MARRIAGE TO JAMES In March 1912, Hazel Forrest gets work as secretary to Richard Bellamy , as he is writing a biography of his late father-in-law Lord Southwold. In the April of 1912, a bored James , Richard's son, insists on Hazel having lunch with him the Dining Room. They soon start courting, to the disapproval of his parents. Following Lady Marjorie's death onboard on ''Titanic'' in April 1912, Hazel is a comfort to James. She also impresses and gains the respect of the servants in how she treats a hysterical Miss Roberts . When James asks her to marry him, while she says she loves him, she refuses to marry. Soon after, Hazel's father Arthur Forrest, comes round and tells James all about Hazel's first marriage. Within days, James goes round to see Hazel and, after some talking, she agrees to marry him. The two marry at Southwold and Honeymoon in Paris . They then move into Eaton Place with Richard. Hazel takes Lady Marjorie's place as mistress of the house and James became the master of the house. MARRIED LIFE The midde-class Hazel has problems adapting to the upper-class world that James lives in. On a hunting weekend to Somerby, Lord Newbury's country house, the other guests encourage her to surprise James and join the hunt, something she has never done before. However, Diana Newbury has secretly swapped the horses and given Hazel a horse that jolts and runs away with Hazel, who escapes largely uninjured. She and James then have an argument, as he feels humilated. This, on top of Major Cochrane-Danby saying James and Diana are sleeping together, leads Hazel to flee Somerby with Rose . James follows her back to London when he finds out she has gone, and they soon make up. Hazel suffers a Miscarriage in May/June 1914, and their marriage begins faltering after that. She says she would have leave the house it if was not for Richard, who admitts to having a "natural affection" for her, and Georgina . However, the War means that James, a former serving officer in the Life Guards , is drafted up before the war has even officially started and this parting seems to bring them closer together. WAR YEARS Following James going to the Front , Hazel takes complete control of the household. She also gets involved in many committees and at one committee, she is persuaded, partly by Lady Prudence , to house a family of Belgian Refugee s. Hazel also does volunteer work at a Canteen at Charing Cross . At a tea party for wounded officers in 1916, she meets a Pilot called Jack Dyson, who like her was born into the Middle Class . They go out several times, and kiss passionately. However, Dyson was soon sent back to active service and is killed at the Battle Of The Somme later that year. In 1917, her father-in-law is created Viscount Bellamy of Haversham, and thus she becomes The Honourable Mrs. James Bellamy. In October 1917, James is reported missing in action and was presumed killed. Hazel loses hope, but Richard keeps her spirits up. After ten days James turns up in a hospital, where Georgina is a nurse, in France . He is alive but seriously wounded, and Hazel insists on bringing him home straight away, despite Georgina's objections. In November 1918, Hazel falls ill with a deadly string of Influenza which has become an Pandemic . Having argued in the months before, they make up shortly before she dies in her sleep on 8 November , aged 32, in her bedroom at Eaton Place. She is buried on 11 November , the day the War Ended , in St. Mark's Church, Wimbledon. James never remarries and commits suicide in 1929. He is buried next to Hazel. REFERENCES
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