With
thanks to Sergio Sbalchiero for sending me this information about VAD Elizabeth
Coghill Bartholomew, known as Betty (1894 - 1975), who served on the Italian
Front in WW1.
Elizabeth
was born on 23rd May 1894 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Elizabeth's parents were Ian
John George Bartholomew, who was cartographer to the King, and his wife, Janet
Bartholomew. Elizabeth’s siblings were:
John
(Ian) Bartholomew, an officer in the Gordon Highlanders, who served in France
and Flanders, George Hugh Freeland Bartholomew, a Captain with the Argyll and
Sutherland Highlanders, who was killed in France in October 1917 at the age of
21 and buried in the Rocquigny - Equancourt Road British Cemetery, Manancourt,
France, Louis St Clair Bartholomew and Margaret (Maisie) Hamilton Bartholomew.
Nicknamed
"Betty Bar", Elizabeth joined the 2nd Edinburgh Voluntary Aid
Detachment in July 1916 – her address at that time was Gardon, Morton Hall
Road, Edinburgh. She worked in Italy with the First British Red Cross Unit from
July 1916 to October 1917, at the Hospital of Villa Trento in Dolegnano.
Elizabeth was then posted to France, where she worked at No.1 Anglo Belge,
Bonsecours, France from June 1918 until April 1919.
After
the war, Elizabeth married Henry Pitney van Deusen from Princeton, USA, who
went to study theology in Edinburgh. Elizabeth died in Princeton, Mercer
County, New Jersey, USA on 14th February 1975.
Photos
of Betty in Italy and the Hospital Villa Trento, Dolegnano, Italy from Sergio
Sbalchiero
