Colonel Hugh John BARTHOLOMEW, C.M.G., D.S.O.

Commanded the 3rd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment from April 1919 to February 1920.

Hugh John Bartholomew born in 1872 at Glympton, Oxfordshire. The eldest son of the Reverend Charles William Marsh Bartholomew (Rector of Glympton, Oxfordshire) and Fanny Valpy Griffiths.

Hugh was Educated at St. Edward's School, Oxford and the Royal Millitary College at Sandhurst. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on the 5th December 1891 to the Worcestershire Regiment and joined the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment.

He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 10th January 1900. On the 17th December 1899 he sailed from Southampton with the 2nd Battalion for South Africa, arriving at Cape Town on the 8th January 1900.

During the War in South African he held the rank of Captain and won 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 during 1905 to 1909, and was Brigade Major at Karachi.

In 1914 at the start of the 1914-18 war he was G.S.O.1. to General Sir James Babington, with the 23rd Division.

In 1915 he was appointed commanding officer of the 10th Duke of Wellington's Regiment in the front line in France till invalided on the 30th August 1916.

After recovery he was sent to Boulogne as A.A.Q.M.G. (Assistant Adjutant Quartermaster General) to General Sir Herbert Wilberforce, where he remained till he took over Command of the 3rd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment in April 1919.

Col. H. J. Bartholomew

He was the awarded C.M.G. for services in France and was four times mentioned in Despatches.

He vacated command of the 3rd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment on the 14th February 1920 and transferred to the reserve officers list on half pay.

From 1920 to 1924 he was Officer Commanding Exeter District and Infantry Records. Colonel Bartholomew finally retired from the army on the 9th December 1926.

Colonel Bartholomew was one of the last Officers to pay stamp duty on his Commission.

He was a great sportsman, being very proficient at shooting, fishing and big game hunting.

Married Gladys, daughter of Leonard Allen Shuter, of Kirby Hall, Horton Kirby, Kent, they had one daughter, Crystal, who married Captain Montague Brown, Royal Garhwal Rifles, in 1935.

Colonel Hugh John Bartholomew, C.M.G., D.S.O. died at Leominster; Hertfordshire, in April 1938 at the age of 66. He was buried with Military honours at Leamington, a bearer party of eight N.C.O.'s and a bugler from the Depot attending the funeral.

 

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