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Back in 2006, I purchased a Transvaal Staatsartillerie button, which was attached to one of General Ben Viljoen’s visiting cards. On the back of the card the General had written: "26 June 1903. Dear Miss Belfort, In response to your desire to possess a button of my tunic, I send you one off my old undress tunic worn during the late war, very sincerely yours B.J. Viljoen".




For over seventeen years I had imagined this was simply a gift to a young admirer, who had been captivated by the General’s good looks.

Then, a few weeks ago, I thought it was time to re-photograph the button. While doing so, I wondered whether Miss Belfort might be identifiable. I believed this was a long shot, but my research soon unearthed an extraordinary story of romance and betrayal.

Miss May Belfort wasn’t just some unknown girl wanting a souvenir, but rather one of the foremost British vaudeville actresses of the Belle Époque. She had been a friend of Toulouse-Lautrec, who drew and painted her on many occasions.








May Belfort first met General Viljoen shortly before the outbreak of hostilities, while he was in London. She spoke of this encounter in January 1904: “We first met in London about five years ago. That was only a casual acquaintance, but afterwards I always looked in the papers for his name when the fighting was on. I don’t quite know why. I think because he seemed to me such a fine, manly man, so brave and kind. And he tried to communicate with me, but he could not find where I was”.

However, it wasn’t until 1903 that the romance truly blossomed. Coincidentally, in June of that year the two found themselves on the same ship bound for South Africa. Ben Viljoen was returning home after a trip to South America, where he was attempting to establish a colony for those Boers who were not prepared to live under British rule and had refused to sign the Oath of Allegiance. Miss Belfort was visiting the Colony as part of a vaudeville tour.

The date on the visiting card is three days after the two landed at Cape Town.

During the voyage their friendship clearly blossomed into a romantic alliance, and the two returned to England together on the S.S. Norman in November 1903, apparently as an engaged couple. It should, however, be mentioned that Viljoen was at this time still married, with a wife and children back in South Africa.







Ottawa Citizen, 19th January 1904

GENERAL BEN FALLS IN LOVE

Intrepid Boer General Falls Victim to Charms of English Lady.

London, Jan. 18.
Of interest to very many just now is the engagement of Miss May Belfort, a London music hall singer, to General Ben Viljoen, of the Boer army, who but a short time ago was fighting fiercely the representatives of his betrothed wife’s country for the independence of his own land.

Commandant Viljoen is at present in the United States, arranging for the Boer exhibit at the St Louis exposition, while Miss Belfort is appearing in the Palace Theatre of London.
Peace has resulted in the union of these two hearts, whose owners but a short while ago were enemies, since their respective nations were waging one of the fiercest wars of recent times against each other. Miss Belfort met the brave general some five years ago, and they then became greatly interested in each other. When General Ben Viljoen went to England after the war, some strange chance caused them to meet again, and interest fast deepened into love, for Miss Belfort found the general’s name on the passenger list of her steamer when she started out to tour South Africa, and at the close of her tour very recently these two returned to England on the same boat and announced their engagement.

It is expected this romantic marriage will take place in February, although the exact date is yet uncertain, owing to the fact of their being busy people, she with her concert hall engagements, while the general is serving his country.


Wellsville Daily Reporter, 6th January 1904

A BOER’S LOVE STORY.

General Ben Viljoen Engaged to an English Singer.

A new alliance between Boer and Briton will shortly be made, says the London Express. The famous Boer general, Ben Viljoen, who fought so bravely against us and was finally captured and sent as a prisoner of war to St Helena, has made another and more complete surrender to British power. He is engaged to be married to Miss May Belfort, the English music hall singer.

“Yes, it is quite true”, smiled Miss Belfort when questioned on the subject, “though we had no intention of making the news public just yet. I wish you could have asked General Viljoen about it, but he has gone to America to arrange for the Boer exhibit at the St Louis exhibition, so I suppose I must tell you.

“We first met in London about five years ago. That was only a casual acquaintance, but afterwards I always looked in the papers for his name when the fighting was on. I don’t quite know why. I think because he seemed to me such a fine, manly man, so brave and kind. And he tried to communicate with me, but he could not find where I was.

“We met again when he came to England after the war, and then, when I was going out to South Africa for my last tour, he travelled by the same boat. I think it was really settled on that trip. Those sea voyages, you know, have many such affairs to answer for”.

But the actual engagement did not take place until some months later. General Viljoen saw much of the fair singer during her tour. He taught her to sing “Maid of Athens” in the Boer “taal”, and her rendering of it was highly popular in Johannesburg. Then they came back from the Cape together, and when they landed at Southampton a few days ago it was as an engaged couple.

“We hope to be married toward the end of next February”, said Miss Belfort, “but much depends on business arrangements”.




The June 1903 passenger list for the S.S. Walmer Castle, which arrived at Cape Town at 6 a.m. on 23 June 1903. The proximity of the two names rather suggests the two boarded together, and that Miss Belfort’s story that she unexpectedly found the General’s name on the passenger list is an embellishment.




Somehow, the news of an engagement between Viljoen and Miss Belfort was leaked to the press in January 1904. By this time, the General had already left for the U.S.A., where preparations were being made for the “Great Boer War Spectacle”, a series of re-enactments that was to be performed at the St Louis World Fair.

Shortly after leaving Liverpool, he wrote to his sweetheart:

On Board the Umbria.
Irish Channel,
December 6th, 1903.

Ma Cherie,
The passengers show little inclination to be sociable. I am the object of considerable scrutiny from those who, I suppose, never saw a live Boer before. Well, my own darling May, my thoughts are always of you. Your kind face is before me, and I fancy I hear you say “My Ben”. Oh, May, my sweetheart, how I love you Heaven alone can tell. I am sad and my heart is heavy. The tears rush out of my eyes when I think of the happy days I spent in your dear home.

Now, my heart’s love, I must close for the night, and again I bid you au revoir for the present. Good-night, sweetheart. God bless and keep His guiding hand over you.

Ever and always your own,
BEN.




However, when Viljoen received the news that his engagement to Miss Belfort had been announced in the British press, he quickly fired off a series of telegrams to various editors, stating that the reports were in error. Messages of denial were inserted into various newspapers on 26 December.


The Evening Post, 26th December 1903

ENGAGEMENT DENIED.

Ex-General Viljoen on His Reported Alliance.

On December 9 the Express published an interview with Miss May Belfort, the well-known Music Hall singer, in which she confirmed her reported engagement with ex-General Ben Viljoen, the Boer leader.

“Yes, it is quite true”, said Miss Belfort, “though we had no intention of making the news public just yet. I wish you could have asked General Viljoen about it, but he is on his way to America to arrange the Boer exhibit at the St Louis Exhibition, so I suppose I must tell you”.

We received yesterday the following cablegram from Mr Viljoen: –

St Louis, Dec 24.
Editor, Express, London.
Announcement my alleged engagement mistake. Kindly insert.
VILJOEN.




Viljoen wrote to Miss Belfort explaining why he could not marry her, explaining that his divorce lawyers were refusing to take his case unless he denied he was contemplating marriage.

St. Louis, Dec. 23, 1903.

Ma Cherie May,

I received your cable last night, but what can I answer? I am sorry, yes, doubly so, that you should have been taken in by that newspaper man. I fear I am ruined. The divorce lawyers refuse to take my case unless I deny in toto that I contemplate marriage.

My dear, I am unhappy, and hardly know what to say. Now, May, dearest, I will write you again. At present I am in a miserable mood, so forgive.

Au revoir, love,
BEN.




After this Viljoen continued to write to Miss Belfort as his sweetheart.

My dearest May,

I am here from New York, after spending some days there getting the stock of our company taken up.

I have been invited by the President to dine with him at the White House tomorrow. [Boer General at White House. Washington, Feb. 4. – General Ben J. Viljoen, a general of the Boer forces in the war in the Transvaal, was a guest of the president at luncheon. General Viljoen will have charge of the Boer exhibit at the St Louis exposition – Altoona Mirror, February 4th 1904].

Are you going to Australia, sweetheart? Are you going into the world alone again? Ah, May, I will always call you sweetheart and always hope for the day that will bring us together. As things stand, I cannot say, “Come, love, be patient”, so or so long, for it would be wrong for me to hold out any false hopes.

I never loved any woman before as I love you, and I cannot bear the thought of you saying that you are unhappy or doubting me. I am sad, my sweetheart. Heaven alone knows how I suffer. If I live through all this, I am coming to you yet.

Farwell for the present, sweetheart. God bless you and keep you.

Ever yours,
BEN.








During this period General Viljoen was busy preparing for the upcoming St Louis World Fair.

To be sold as a souvenir of the “Great Boer War Spectacle”, he printed a special edition of his novel “Under the Vierkleur”. Facing p. 192, the illustration “Bettie had been riding ahead of the wagon” depicts a girl who, in Viljoen’s words, was a “reproduction of May’s face” (see below).






As 1904 progressed, so Viljoen’s letters appeared to cool. An undated missive explains that “my hopes of having you as my wife seem to dwindle away”. However, there is no indication at this point that he wanted to end the affair.

Undated.

My Cherie May,

Today I received your three-line note. Well, I can't blame you. my dear. I know how you have been neglected. But the reason, I trust you understand from my former letters. Well, my dear, you say I am forgetting you. No, my love, such is not the case, but, alas, my hopes of having you as my wife seem to dwindle away. I fear to hold out any hopes, and cannot deceive you. My love and esteem for you is too high to take you to a desolate home, where I will not be able to provide for you.

Do not forget me altogether, love. The girl on horseback in my book is a reproduction of your face.

Your devoted,
BEN.




Poster for the “Great Boer War Spectacle” tour, with portraits of General Viljoen, Colonel Frank Fillis and General Cronje. For some reason the caption for the last-named has been deleted.




By October, however, the long-distance relationship had clearly deteriorated significantly, with Viljoen now signing off with “Yours very sincerely, B.J. Viljoen”, opposed to “Ever and always yours, Ben”.


St. Louis, Oct. 27, 1904.

My Dear May,

Your reproachful letter received. I wrote to you several times to London. As to our relations, my dear May, the position I am in is of such a nature that I cannot look to any prospect of making you a home. I can't afford it. And as my obligations are simply outrageous, it would be folly for any sane person to make promises and drag a woman into ties which would never bring happiness. I will, of course, be glad to see you again. But, my dear girl, the day of marriage with me is past forever.

Yours very sincerely.
B.J. VILJOEN.



It seems that at about this time, Ben Viljoen met another woman, Miss Myrtle Dickerson, in St Louis. Although Myrtle married a Mr Lowden shortly after her first encounter with Viljoen, she soon divorced her first husband, and the General and Mrs Dickerson-Lowden married on 27th July 1905. Although he denied there was another woman at the time, it seems May Belfort’s belief that this was the case was correct.

Believing she had been betrayed, May now set her sights on revenge. Boiling over with rage, she made the 4,000-mile transatlantic trip to Chicago, where she knew her ex-lover was then performing.

With revolver and horse-whip concealed on her person, she confronted the General outside the Chicago Coliseum on 18 January 1905. Her intention had been to shoot him, but at the last moment she came to the conclusion that “death was too good for him”, and so she horse-whipped him instead.

Unsurprisingly, the fact that a Boer General had been horse-whipped by a young British actress made news across the globe. Oddly, Ben Viljoen at first denied the event had taken place, despite the fact that it happened in front of a crowd of bystanders.


The Irish Independent, 10th April 1905

DEATH TOO GOOD FOR HIM.

“It is true I horsewhipped General Viljoen publicly in Chicago, after he had made it plain that he had no serious intentions toward me. Indeed, upon that occasion I carried with me a loaded revolver, with which I intended to kill him. But I did not use the pistol because, at the last moment, I concluded that death was too good for the man, so I horsewhipped him. But I have that gun yet, and here it is”.

Here Miss Belfort produced a revolver from a grip in her sitting room.

“I am a woman of sudden impulses”, she said, as she handled the gleaming weapon, “and there is no telling what a woman scorned will do.

“I am only a woman. I have no one to defend me, and I must, therefore, defend myself. I have no friends, nor relatives, in this country”.

Miss Belfort showed several large bundles of letters, all of which, she said, were written to her by General Viljoen.



“The Actress that Whipped a Boer General. Miss May Belfort, the woman who horsewhipped General Viljoen, and now makes public the love-letters she says he wrote her”.




Defiance Express, 16th February 1905

GENERAL VILJOEN IS HORSEWHIPPED.

FORMER BOER FIGHTER ROUTED BY AN ACTRESS.

CHARGED WITH JILTING HER.

South African Hero Beats Hasty Retreat Before Young Woman – Latter Tells of Romantic Adventures.

Chicago.
General Benjamin Johannes Viljoen, Boer patriot and hero of half a hundred South African battlefields, was horsewhipped at the Coliseum here the other night by Miss May Belfort, an English vaudeville actress, who claims in defence of her act that he jilted her after his wife secured a divorce from him in order to give him his freedom.
The sensational attack upon the famous soldier occurred at seven o’clock, when Miss Belfort appeared before the general and demanded:

“What do you mean by your scurrilous letter to me? Have you acted toward me as a man would toward a woman?”

“I know of no wrong deeds on my part –” began Viljoen, when the enraged actress snatched a heavy rawhide whip from the folds of her skirt and struck him a cutting blow upon the arm. General Viljoen retreated before a shower of blows, the woman following him. With a last vicious cut, she desisted from her attack and then left the place.

In her room at the Sherman house, Miss Belfort sat on the edge of her bed and told in picturesque style of her romantic adventures with Viljoen.

“I’m clean flabbergasted over this affair”, she said. “Do you know that I met the Boer in 1903, while he was on a lecture in London. We were very fond of each other, but it was quite by accident, you know, that we left England for South Africa on the same boat. Then we had our pictures taken together in Johannesburg”.

Miss Belfort then obligingly loaned the picture, a heart-shaped card, showing herself and the general together.

“Do you know”, she continued, “he wanted to know if I would marry him if his wife got a divorce through a barrister. I said ‘Yes’, but my friends wanted to know what I wanted to marry a Boer general for. It was because I loved him.

“We returned to England together. About a twelvemonth ago the Boer went to St Louis. I have real ‘swads’ of letters from him. After Mrs Viljoen’s barrister got her a divorce last fall the tone of his letters changed. He wrote to me that ‘he was through with married life’, and that he could not afford to get married.

“He often took the trouble to cable to the London Daily Express and deny that he was engaged to marry me.

“I am sure I hurt him. If his coat had only been thinner, I would have thrashed him even more soundly than I did. I did my best anyway”.

Miss Belfort sings French and English songs in vaudeville. General Viljoen refused to discuss Miss Belfort, saying that the notoriety was distasteful to him. He declared that Miss Belfort was seeking notoriety for herself.

General Viljoen is certain that a man accompanied the woman and made an appointment by telephone for her. Miss Belfort denies emphatically that any other person was connected with the affair.



Boulder Evening Star, 23rd February 1905

BEN VILJOEN THRASHED.

HORSEWHIFPED BY A LADY WHO ALLEGES BROKEN PROMISES.

General Viljoen, the Boer ex-Commander, was assaulted last night at the entrance of the Coliseum in Chicago by an English girl named Miss Belfort. As the general approached the entrance Miss Belfort, suddenly blocked his way, and accosted him, saying, “You promised to marry me, and have not done so, and I have come from England purposely to punish you”.

General Viljoen appeared greatly astonished at seeing the lady, and exclaimed, “Why May, where have you come from?” Miss Belfort, without giving him time to say more, shouted, “I’ll teach you to break your promises, and drawing a horse whip which she held concealed behind her, began beating the general over the head with it. The general stood his ground for a moment or two, trying to expostulate with the lady, but she was too angry to listen, and kept on plying her whip with vigour. Before the onlookers could interfere the general turned and fled from the spot, while Miss Belfort threw the whip aside and left the fast-gathering crowd.



Omeo Standard, 13th June 1905

“None but the brave deserve the fair”, but when the brave desert the fair, what happens? An actress in Chicago, Miss May Belfort, has answered that question by horsewhipping General Ben Viljoen, famous in the Boer War. He admitted writing her love letters, in which he called her “Ma Cherie” and other endearing names; but towards the end of last year he sought to beat a retreat, Boer fashion, after promising to marry her. “I can't afford it”, he said; “I will, of course, be glad to see you again; but, my dear girl, the day of marriage with me is past for ever”. The day of vengeance, however, arrived instead of the wedding day, and the General did see his dear girl again, with a horsewhip in her hand. Probably he would have preferred to see regiment in khaki.





In response to Viljoen’s initial denial that the event had taken place, May Belfort wrote the following account of the encounter.

Perth Daily News, 28th April 1905

BEN VILJOEN.

THE AMERICAN INCIDENT.

LETTER FROM MAY BELFORT.

The following appears in the 'Rand Daily Mail': —

Sir, — It has just been brought to my notice that General Ben Viljoen had sent a contradiction to the English papers re the fact of his having been horsewhipped, and that he intends suing the American papers who published the (as he calls it) unfounded statement.

Now, I cannot understand how he dares to send such a denial, as in the face of it all his interviews, after the occurrence, are in themselves sufficient proof that he was horsewhipped, and as I did the deed I can verify the statement made by the several American papers. However, this man will deny anything, as he denied he asked me to marry him as soon as he got a decree of divorce from his wife in Africa, and the divorce he said he would get as soon as he arrived in America.

He kept up an affectionate correspondence with me until I arrived in this country, late October 22, and as there was no letter of welcome awaiting me when I got to New York I wrote to him how surprised I was, etc. That letter he sent me is the one published in the 'Chicago Examiner' of January 19, 1905, and as there was no reason by any action of mine to call for such a letter, so lacking, (in my humble opinion) in decency and good feeling, I sent him several letters asking for a more manly explanation. He treated my letters with undue contempt.

I have been shamefully treated by this man, and as I am earning my living on the stage people are too ready, perhaps, to condemn me, and to think, for the same reason, that the horsewhipping I gave Ben Viljoen was (as the latter told reporters here) done to gain notoriety. Had I wanted notoriety or advertisement by him I could have published in London a year ago (when he denied he asked me to marry him) material proof in the form of letters received from him. I did not and would not do anything to expose him, and he wrote me explaining that if he had not denied the statement, he could not get his divorce in this country, and although I was advised by friends to clear myself by producing his letter, I took his feelings into consideration first, and my reward has been his base treatment to me. His excuse that he is too poor to marry is absurd, as it was an understood fact between us that I was to continue to earn my livelihood on the stage, and therefore I would be earning quite as large a salary at my profession as he earns. I am alone in this country, and there was no fitter punishment to give that man than the horsewhipping I gave him on the 18th of January in the public street outside the Coliseum, before a goodly crowd — about [illegible] p.m., to be precise. I may mention that Viljoen, through the medium of his solicitor and mine, offered me 300 dollars to settle with him (this was on the Friday after I whipped him), and I replied to this offer that Viljoen was adding insult to injury, and I naturally refused his offer.

As I have my living to get, and I feel am in sight of the public sailing under false colours. I ask you to give my statement the same consideration as his denial was given.
I enclose you an extract of a letter received from Viljoen, and I have dozens more in the same strain. I am also sending you cuttings from papers, and I swear it was perfectly true. Ben Viljoen was horsewhipped by me.

Anticipating your indulgence for such a lengthy explanation.

Believe me, dear sir, yours faithfully,
MAY BELFORT


Extraordinarily, when General Viljoen died in 1917, many obituaries gave more column inches to the May Belfort affair than they did to his service during the Anglo-Boer War.
Over two thirds of the Adelaide Journal’s piece was devoted to the horse-whipping incident.


Adelaide Journal, 17th March 1917

GENERAL DEAD.

INVENTED BOER BATTLE CRY.

General Ben Viljoen, who was only 50, has died at Lamesa, in New Mexico. He was the famous Boer guerilla chief who held out so long against the British in the mountains of Lydenburg and the bushveld of the Northern Transvaal. He was Assistant Commander-General of the burgher forces, and was described by Gen. Sir Bindon Blood, who fought against him, as "a very capable man and a brave soldier". He was a violent Anglophobe, a member of the Volksraad, and a pillar of the “No Surrender” party. At the outbreak of the South African war he served under Joubert in the invasion of Natal. Later, he fought at Elandslaagte, and took part in the siege of Ladysmith. When Kruger fled and Schalk Burger was appointed President, Viljoen was nominated second in command under Botha. In May 1901, he broke through the British cordon and escaped into the bush to the north. He was the hero of the attack on Col. Benson, when the British camp was rushed and a large number of the Victoria Mounted Rifles were captured. He led the surprise attack on Helvetia, and captured a 4.7 Gun. It was he who invented the Boer battle cry of "God and the Mauser!" On one occasion a Vickers-Maxim machine gun had been abandoned by the Boers and left in a donga, when, just as our troops were moving out to capture it, Viljoen appeared with a team of horses, hitched up the gun, and escaped with it through a storm of lyddite shells. Finally, Gen. Viljoen was ambuscaded and captured near Lydenburg by Major Orr, of the Royal Irish Regiment. After his capture Viljoen was sent a prisoner to St. Helena. At the end of the war he came to London.

Horsewhipped.

It was during his stay in London that Gen. Viljoen met Miss May Belfort, a popular music hall artist. She always asserted that he promised to marry her; he says he did not. Anyhow, when he went to America she appears to have followed him, but he did not know it. One night as he was about to enter the Coliseum in Chicago he was amazed to be confronted by his former sweetheart. “Why, May, where did you come from?” was his surprised question. “You villain; I'll teach you to break your promises”, cried Miss Belfort, as she produced a riding whip, which she had held concealed behind her back. “I came from England to horsewhip you. Take that, and that, and that!” and she plied the rawhide to right good purpose. “May, May, what are you doing? Are you crazy? Why do you do this? Have you come here to disgrace me?” cried Viljoen, as he vainly tried to ward off the rain or blows. “Yes, I came to give you the thrashing you deserve for your insult, you scoundrel!” the actress panted, and lash, lash, lash went the whip, until she stopped through sheer exhaustion. “Now go to your new love, whoever she is; but you will never forget this whipping”, cried the enraged woman, as she flung the whip at the general's feet and walked away, while her fickle lover hastened into the Coliseum.

Death Too Good.

American newspaper reporters could not be expected to let an incident of this kind escape them, and within a few minutes of Miss Belfort's return to her hotel she was being interviewed by representatives of a number of journals. “Yes”, she said, “I horsewhipped Gen. Viljoen. I gave him Exactly what he deserved for the cruel and heartless way in which he has slighted me and broken his premise to marry me. I feel sure there is some American girl who has won his love, but that would make no difference to me if he had only treated me nicely and told me of it and not refused to answer my letters as he did. I have a stack of his letters in which he swore he loved me truly, and was eagerly awaiting the day when we could be married. The general formerly had a wife in Africa, but she secured a divorce from him. My love for him was turned to hate when he wrote me and said he had changed his mind, telling me in such a brutal manner that our old dream, of future happiness was a thing of the past”. Miss Belfort said when she thrashed the general she carried a loaded revolver, with which she intended to kill him. But at the last moment she concluded that death was too good for him, so she used the whip. “I am a woman of sudden impulse", she said, "and there is no telling what a woman scorned will do. I am only a woman. I have no one to defend me, and I must, therefore, defend myself”. Miss Belfort showed the reporters several letters, which she asserted Gen. Viljoen had written to her. One read: — “My Cherie May —Today I received your three-line note. Well, I can't blame you, my dear. I know how you have been neglected. But the reason I trust you understand from my former letters. Well, my dear, you say I am forgetting you. No, my love, such is not the case; but, alas! my hopes of having you you for my wife seem to dwindle away. I fear to hold out any hopes, and cannot deceive you. My love and esteem for you is too high to take you to a desolate home, where I will not be able to provide for you. Do not forget me altogether, love. The girl on horseback in my book is a reproduction of your face”.

Day of Marriage Past.

Those letters were written in 1903. A year later, the prospect of marriage had apparently become even fainter, for Gen. Viljoen wrote: — “Are you going to Australia, sweetheart? Are you going into the world alone again? Ah! May, I will always call you sweetheart, and always hope for the day that will bring us together. As thing's stand, I cannot say, ‘Come, love, be patient for so long’, for it would be wrong for me to hold out any false hopes. I am unable, according to best advice, to proceed with my divorce suit until this company is fixed up, and the newspaper story has blown over. I never loved any women before as I love you, and cannot bear the thought of you saying that you are unhappy or doubting me. I am sad, my sweetheart. Heaven alone knows how I suffer. If I live through all this I am coming to you yet. Farewell for the present, sweetheart. God bless and keep you. I will, of course, be glad to see you again. But, my dear girl, the day of marriage with me is past for ever. Yours very sincerely, B.J. Viljoen”.

In his book, “My Reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer War", written while he was in exile at St. Helena, Gen. Viljoen recanted his anti-Britishism, and declared that the two races must live amicably together. “Let us hold out our hands to each other like men”, he wrote, “forgetting the past and remembering the motto, 'Both nations have done their duty’”.


In contrast, May Belfort’s 1929 obituaries make no mention of the affair, instead concentrating on her stage performances of the 1890s. She married Mr James Mudge, President of the “White Rats” of America (a fraternal organization formed by vaudeville performers), and died destitute after a series of ill-advised investments in the mining industry. She spent her final years in Santa Barbara, California, bent over a weaving loom.





Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 31st March 1929

MAY MUDGE, IDOL OF “GAY 90s”, DIES IN POVERTY.

Santa Barbara, California, March 30.

Once the toast of European and American stage devotees, May Mudge, better known as May Belfort, “the darling of the London music halls”, died in poverty here last night after a lingering illness.

Penniless since the death several years ago of her husband, James Mudge, former president of the “White Rats”, noted theatrical organization, the once famous stress whose Cockney impersonations made her an idol during the “gay 90s”, had eked out a living here as a rug weaver.



Santa Barbara News, 30th March 1929

MAY MUDGE, TOAST OF LONDON MUSIC HALLS DURING DAYS OF “GAY 90’s” PASSES AWAY.

A life filled with the sweetness and glamour of theatrical success followed by the bitter monotony of an existence apart from the footlights, the greasepaint, the gay costumes and applause, was snuffed out last evening in the Cottage Hospital when May M. Mudge, known to the stage of Europe and America as May Belfort, passed away.

Several weeks ago she went to the hospital for rest and treatment for an infection which was rapidly spreading through her system. While her physicians realised the seriousness of her condition, the famous actress never knew – or, if she did, would not admit it even to herself – that death was near.

May Belfort was the toast of London and Paris during the “gay nineties” when, with her Cockney songs and clever impersonations and pianologues, she “stopped the show” and answered curtain call after curtain call. For several years she was the headline attraction whenever she appeared in London music halls. Paris, too, acclaimed her, and New York received her with open arms. She was one of a very few vaudeville artists to “make” the front pages of the metropolitan dailies.

At the very pinnacle of her fame, after she had amassed a considerable fortune, she fell in love, [and] married, gave up the stage and with her husband moved to the west. Her husband was a prominent figure in the theatrical world, also, having been president of the “White Rats”, at the time the largest organisation of stage people in the world.

In mining interests, she and her husband lost their money. Fire destroyed their home and in the flames, she lost her most precious treasures – her stage costumes, her press clippings, her programs, all of her little mementoes of a life in the theatre, brilliant with success.

Soon afterward, her husband died and, bowed with grief, Mrs Mudge came to Santa Barbara. Melancholia and despondency developed until she became interested in the community theatre. Though her wealth was gone, she was rich in memories of her former life in the theatre. She became an enthusiastic member of the players group here and took part in a number of productions. Among those in which her work will best be remembered are “The Rivals”, with May Mudge as Mrs Malaprop; “Liliom”, with Mrs Mudge as Mother Hollander; “Outward Bound”, in which she gave a superb performance as Miss Midgit; “Hay Fever”, in which she played Clara, a Cockney serving maid, and “Three Live Ghosts”, playing the “old fence”, a splendid characterisation.

Loving the theatre more than life itself, she found time to take an active part in The Strollers, and appeared in a number of productions given by that organisation. She was always affiliated with the French players in their productions at the School of the Arts Theatre, and also appeared in a number of Green Room Club plays at the time that group was functioning.

While in Santa Barbara, Mrs Mudge has been engaged in the weaving profession. Bent over the loom for long hours every day, she dreamed of the days gone by as her fingers tossed the shuttle back and forth. Although alert and very much alive to all that was happening about her, her pleasantest hours were spent with her memories.

Always she was kindly and considerate. These traits won for her a vast group of friends who were shocked and grieved to learn of her sudden passing. Only a sister survives and she is living in London.

At 2 o’clock this afternoon a group of friends gathered at the Charles T. Holland Funeral Chapel to attend her funeral. Only one was present who had known her as the famous May Belfort. She took her last curtain call to an empty house.


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Now that is quite something to behold Neville. Well done on making the link and joining all the disparate dots together.

Truly a fascinating story.

Wow Neville, it's true that fact is stranger than fiction.

Well done on joining the dots and sharing it with us.

Thank you Neville for sharing this story with us!

Hello Neville

Ben Viljoen's side of the story

Taken from the St. Louis Post Dispatch March 29, 1905







Regards

A few years ago Carel Van Der Merwe published a detailed biography (in Afrikaans) about Ben Viljoen which he titled "Kansvatter". ("Chancer" in english). A very good, but sometimes a little difficult (!) read. Hopefully an edition translated into english will become available sometime. A book of over 500 pages, well indexed with many photographs.

A great tribute to a fine Boer General.