Born at Parkstone, Dorset, 16 April 1869, son of Thomas Belben, he was educated at Haileybury College and at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he took third-class honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos, part I, 1888. He qualified in 1891, and served as house surgeon, house physician, and resident midwifery assistant at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He was also house physician at the West London Hospital, and senior house surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, Hull. Belben practised throughout his career as a consulting surgeon at Bournemouth and was surgeon to the Royal Victoria and West Hants Hospital. He was also consulting surgeon at Milford-on-Sea and Lymington Hospitals. During the war of 1914-18 he was honorary surgeon to the military hospitals at Bournemouth, and was created OBE for his services. He retired to Parkstone, Dorset, and died at Poole on 13 November 1955, aged 86.