Bartholomew had been born in 1872 at Glympton, Oxfordshire,
being the eldest son of the Reverend Charles William Marsh Bartholomew (Rector
of Glympton) and Fanny Valpy Griffiths. Bartholomew was educated at St.
Edward's School, Oxford, before attending the Royal Military College at
Sandhurst. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on the 5th December
1891 to the Worcestershire Regiment and joined the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire
Regiment. He was promoted Lieutenant on 10th January 1900.
Bartholomew then served with some distinction in the Boer
War. On 17th December 1899 he sailed from Southampton with the 2nd
Battalion for South Africa, arriving at Cape Town on 8th January
1900. During the war he held the rank of Captain and was awarded the D.S.O. for
his gallantry; he also was mentioned in despatches. He continued to serve with
the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment in Ceylon and India from
1905 to 1909, and was Brigade Major at Karachi.
At the outbreak of war in 1914 he had been serving as
G.S.O.2 to General Sir James Babington, commanding 23rd Division.
Writing some years letter, Priestley recalled his last
encounter with the Battalion’s original commanding officer, Col. Crawford; “Our
old colonel, too old for service at the front, had watched us march past for
the last time, not hiding his tears, suddenly ancient and done with”. He also
remembered Bartholomew as having been a man, “who had been a Regular Army major
and who spoke with what seemed to my ears such a fantastically affected drawl I
could not take him seriously; he was like a comic swell in a play”.
After less than a month as Lance Corporal, L.Cpl. Archibald Louis Norris (see 7th April), at his own
request, reverted to the rank of Private.
Lance Corporal Frederick
Griggs (see 3rd May) joined 2nd Battalion West
Ridings on active service in the Ypres Salient.
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