Nickname(s) Barty Rank General Years of service 1897 - 1940 | Service/branch British Army Allegiance United Kingdom Name William Bartholomew | |
Died 31 December 1962 (aged 85) | ||
General Sir William Henry Bartholomew, (16 March 1877 – 31 December 1962) was a senior British Army officer during the 1930s and a Colonel Commandant to the Royal Artillery.
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Army career
Educated at Newton College, South Devon and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Bartholomew was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1897. He was promoted to lieutenant on 23 March 1900, and to captain on 22 March 1902.
He served in the First World War initially as a General Staff Officer in 4th Division, and then as a brigadier general on the General Staff of 20 Corps from 1917 and on the General Staff of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force from 1918.
After the war he commanded the 6th Infantry Brigade from 1923 moving on to be Director of Recruiting and Organisation at the War Office in 1927. He was appointed Commandant of the Imperial Defence College in 1929 and Director of Military Operations and Intelligence at the War Office in 1931. He became Chief of the General Staff in India in 1934 and then General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Northern Command in 1937; he retired in 1940.
He was made an Aide de Camp General to the King from 1938 to 1940 and Colonel Commandant of the Royal Artillery from 1934 to 1937.
After the Army
In retirement, Bartholomew served as North Eastern Regional Commissioner for Civil Defence between 1940 and 1945. He lived at Claxton Hall near York. He donated over £20,000 in 1921 to the Public Dispensary and Hospital, Leeds; later becoming world-renowned St James' Teaching Hospital.