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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [44r] (87/336)
The record is made up of 1 volume (168 folios). It was created in 1982?. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
42
had to be built up on either side before we could cross without damage. I
climbed out and went down on my hands and knees and saw that all was well
and straightened up as the car passed and stepped back as the hood came in
line with me. My legs came up against the coping of the culvert and I lost
my balance and fell on my back in the stream below. The water was only a
few inches deep, but enough to break my fall and I scrambled out unhurt to
see Bill's astonished face peering at me over the culvert. The water was
refreshing and I felt better and was strong enough by lunch time to eat quite
a respectable meal. It was as well I had recovered because in the afternoon
we had to negotiate quite a lot of sand which brought us to a full stop more
than once and necessitated hard work with the spades before we got going
again. When we were close to Maina, which is a hundred and eight miles from
Birjand, and where we intended to stay the night, we drove in to the very
devil of a sand storm and had to crawl along until it had blown itself out,
with visibility at times reduced to no more than a dozen yards. We reached
Maina at eight o’clock in the evening and bargained with a felt merchant for
the use of the lower floor of his premises and were extremely comfortably
housed in two rooms, the Nisbets in one and Bill and I in the other. The
merchant had a large stock of pieces of thick felt which made an excellent
couch. The Hutchins slept in their car in the street and perforce had to
undress in the open before an admiring audience who loudly applauded the
removal of each garment.
The following day, April 18th, we started as early as usual because although
we had fifty miles less to do than the day before, we knew that we had to
cross two formidable passes, each of which was over 6,000 feet, before reach
ing Meshed where we proposed to stay for a few days before pressing on on
what we expected to be a much better road to Teheran. Actually we were in
for a pleasant surprise because the road was far better than those we had so
far negotiated and although the gradients up and down the passes, which were
still snow-covered, were very steep we had no trouble at all. I
I shall never forget my first distant view of the great mosque of Meshed,
one of the places of pilgrimage of the Shiah sect of Islam. We had our
first sight of the town from high ground just as the waning sun caught the
two great domes, one a beautiful azure blue and the other all encased in
gold, and made them gleam and flash amidst the otherwise drab-looking mud
brick houses. We entered the town in the early evening and drove straight
About this item
- Content
This volume is a set of typewritten memoirs by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, a retired officer of the British Indian Army and the Indian Political Service The branch of the British Government of India with responsibility for managing political relations between British-ruled India and its surrounding states, and by extension the Gulf, during the period 1937-47. . Hickinbotham held various positions in India and in the Middle East, and these memoirs recount stories from his time in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Quetta, Persia [Iran], Aden, Audhali, Bahrain and North Waziristan.
The memoirs were most likely completed in 1982-83; they cover the period 1927-1982, although most of the chapters relate to events from the 1930s and 1940s.
Hickinbotham writes not only about his official duties but also about various trips taken during periods of leave. Below is a list of the chapters, with a short summary of each:
- 'No Medals This Time' (ff 3-6) – details of an incident in Kuwait involving a dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. that caught fire off the foreshore at Shuwaik [Ash Shuwaykh]
- 'The Silver Coin' (ff 7-10) – thoughts on the use of the Maria Theresa thaler in Arabia
- 'The Golden Dagger' (ff 11-36) – an account of Hickinbotham's unofficial visit to Riyadh to meet Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] in May 1942
- 'The Brass Pencase' (ff 37-53) – memories of a journey undertaken from Quetta to Europe via north Persia in 1927, travelling in a Fiat Tourer with Colonel T Nisbet (also referred to as the 'purple emperor'), on what Hickinbotham claims to have been the first trip taken by car from India to the Mediterranean
- 'The Bronze Boy' (ff 54-72) – reminiscences of weekends spent in 'Little Aden' (a rocky peninsula seven miles west of Aden), in 1938, and a later visit, in December 1961
- 'The Silver Letter Case' (ff 73-118) – details of a ten-day trip on the Audhali plateau in the summer of 1938, and a return visit, in December 1960 (the chapter ends with remarks on the situation in Yemen generally from the late sixties to the time of writing, i.e. 1982)
- 'The Agate Ring' (ff 119-144) – memories of travelling in Oman during the summer of 1940 and how this compared with Hickinbotham's last visit to the country in 1980
- 'The Pearl Tie Pin' (ff 145-151) – thoughts and anecdotes on the pearl trade in Bahrain
- 'A Point of View' (ff 152-157) – a story told to Hickinbotham, possibly fictional, of a pearl trader in the Gulf who lost his fortune and livelihood, and eventually his sanity
- 'Snakes Alive!!' (ff 158-161) – an account of a near-fatal encounter with a krite [krait] in Waziristan
- 'The Queen's Visit' (ff 162-168) – memories of the Queen's visit to the Aden Protectorate in 1954, where Hickinbotham was serving as Governor.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (168 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume contains an index of chapter headings on folio 2, which includes some handwritten corrections and annotations.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 168; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional mixed foliation/pagination sequence is also present in parallel between ff 3-168.
Condition: The original plastic comb binding ring has been replaced with a wider one to facilitate flat opening of the volume. Polyester film covers have been added to protect the first and last folios.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [44r] (87/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x000058> [accessed 15 January 2025]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F226/13
- Title
- '"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE'
- Pages
- 1r:168v
- Author
- Hickinbotham, Sir Tom
- Usage terms
- The copyright status is unknown. Please contact [email protected] with any information you have regarding this item.