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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [76r] (151/336)
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.
took off in fine style and as the second nachlne became airborne, I put my
hand into my breast pocket and felt for my glare glasses* They were not
there and I remembered with dismay that I had taken them off and put them
in the pocket of my overalls when I had put on my flying helmet and goggles.
Those same overalls were in the aircraft now disappearing rapidly into the
distant base. There was worse to come. My pith helmet had gone with the
aircraft. I was muoh.distuxbed because from the very beginning of my army
service in India I had been taught that to stir outside in the summer with
out a helmet would result in Immediate sunstroke. I had been told of, and
read of, horrible instances of this happening and invariably resulting in
madness. I was dismayed, but there was nothing to be done except to follow
local custom and twist a scarf around my head and hope for the best. In
fact, I did not even have a headache and was never again a slave to a pith-
helmet. When a year later I returned to India, I carried one with me but
only when in the company of Buropeans did I wear it. It was soothing to
their feelings and easier than trying to convert them to ray heretical views.
A felt hat was ample. The glare glasses I did miss and in consequence had
some trouble with my eyes. Glare glasses are a necessity, pith-helmets are
worn now only by Anglo-Indians as a symbol of status. ,,
After I had exchanged greetings and shaken hands fi^ll around, we set off in
a body to the nearby village of Mukeiras. The footpath was stony and dusty
and the ground over which we made our way was very dry. There had been no
rain for nearly ten months and our walk was punctuated by exclamations of
sorrow from Ahmad at the sight of the parched fields and dried up wells.
We skirted the village, a small place of some thirty houses built of
undressed stone covered with mud plaster amidst which was the open market
place now deserted. Once a week, on market day, it is the scene of tremen-
dous activity when tribesmen from far and near gather to barter their prod
uce for cloth and other necessary goods. Around the village was a considerable
area of cultivable land and near some of the wells which had not dried up were
vivid patches of green lucerne with here and there a few apricot trees.
Beyond the village we followed a well worn track along the side of a broad
valley leading to the town of Aryab, our destination, where lived Ahmad's
father with whom we were to lodge. In an hour or more we crossed a low ridge
and there before us lay the town domianted by the twin towers of Sultan
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' [76r] (151/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x000098> [accessed 2 April 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.