William Bartholomew (British Army officer)
General Sir William Henry Bartholomew, was a senior British Army officer during the 1930s and a Colonel Commandant of the Royal Artillery.
Military career
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.
After the war Bartholomew commanded the 6th Infantry Brigade from 1923, was promoted in May 1926 to major general, 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 during the Second World War.
Bartholomew was made an aide-de-camp general to the King from 1938 to 1940 and colonel commandant of the Royal Artillery from June 1934, when he succeeded Lieutenant General Sir Edward Fanshawe, to 1947.