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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [99r] (197/336)
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.
97 -
the outside. There was no other door and as they could not break it down
and were not prepared to climb out of the windows, they had no alternative
but to mount to the roof and shout until the neighbours came to their rescue
and asked the awkward questions Ahmad and his friends had sought to avoid.
What happened to the Somali when he returned or why he had behaved as he did
I never discovered before our own doubts, if we really had any, were set at
rest by the reappearance of our host.
He headed a procession of servants carrying plates and dishes and in no time
the floor was covered with bowls of soup, chicken curries, mounds of rice,
meat stews, rounds of bread and quantities of tinned fruit, but the centre
piece was a very large china dish containing a fresh salad. I was very sur
prised at the sight of the lettuces and radishes and tomatoes, only to be
obtained in Aden by the privileged few from the P & 0 Company's ships or
occasionally in very small ruantities from the cold room of a refrigeration
ship. I asked Ahmad Hussein where they came from and was told that he had
been given the seed by an RAF officer and grew them himself in his garden.
The sight of the salad occupied my thoughts throughout lunch and an idea was
bom that day which was to be put into practice by others after I had returned
to the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
.
After lunch the tax collector came in and was soundly abused by Sultan
Abdullah bin Ahmad for his slackness in collecting the tribute of grain. I
smoked a cigarette while Ahmad Abdu Nabi smoked his water pipe and we both
enjoyed the scene. Later my host and I left Sultan Abdullah bin Ahmad to
deal with the land cases and went for a walk, returning by way of the little
vegetable garden which was bright with flowers. Back in the town I went to
one or two shops kept by Jewish silversmiths and for six shillings bought two
old silver necklets set with red agates from the Yemen. It was a matter of
hard bargaining which we all enjoyed. First of all the weight of the silver
in the necklets was ascertained by weighing them against a number of snail
round stones of known weight. Once the weight had been determined, we made
a great fuss about the purity of the silver and when at last this had been
agreed by Ahmad Hussein and the vendor, we commented adversely on the quality
of the workmanship and pointed out cracks in some of the agates. Everything
must come to an end sometime, even the purchase of silver necklets from a Jew
in a remote part of South Arabia, and I paid over the necessary number of
silver dollars and pocketed my purchases.
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' [99r] (197/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x0000c6> [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.