Educated at Newton College,
South Devon and the
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Bartholomew was
commissioned into the
Royal Artillery on 23 March 1897. He was promoted to
lieutenant on 23 March 1900, and to
captain on 22 March 1902. After serving as an
adjutant in July 1906, he attended the
Staff College, Quetta from 1909 to 1910. Bartholomew 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
XX Corps from 1917 and on the General Staff of the
Egyptian Expeditionary Force from 1918. moving on to be Director of Recruiting and Organisation at the
War Office in 1927. to 1947. ==After the Army==