Born the son of a Castilian physician,[1] De Bartolomé joined the Royal Navy in 1885.

[2] He was posted as a lieutenant on the staff of HMS Excellent, shore establishment at Portsmouth, on 1 February 1900.

[3] He was promoted to commander on 31 December 1902,[4] and posted to the armoured cruiser HMS Drake on her first commission in January 1903,[5] serving in the Channel Fleet.

[8] He became Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy in 1918 in which year he also became Aide-de-Camp to the King; he retired in 1919 and then became Director General of Development at the Ministry of Transport.

[6] Their second son, Stephen Martin de Bartolomé, married Helen Elisabeth Dawn, daughter of Brigadier General Alfred Ernest Irvine, of Under-the-Hill House, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire.