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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [15r] (29/336)
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.
13
To describe adequately the stony wastes of Arabia Is almost impossible and
I shall not attempt to do so. It is enough to say that to the stranger it
all seems to be the same, miles and miles of flat looking ground covered
in places with low scrub stretching away to the horizon. At the time of
the year in which I was travelling, a heat haze shimmered in the distance
and mirage magnified the smallest object until even close to it was
scarcely recognisable. To know the desert one must live in it and then,
and only then, can one describe it properly and even then only to someone
havirg the same knowledge.
Fifty miles from Kuwait the track we were following crossed the frontier
into Saudi Arabia and we made good progress to Jariyah A1 Illiyah, the
headquarters of the Saudi Governor of the area. A large square fort housed
the Saudi Government W/T station and was the residence of the Governor him
self. With great courtesy this responsible official came down from his
quarters to welcome me as I drove through the main entrance past a saluting
sentry. he led me up a staircase to a room in the Gatehouse itself, and
tea and coffee appeared and water was ordered to be brought from the
Governor's own private well. When the water arrived, it was alight grey,
opaque fluid with various unidentifiable solids in suspension, but luckily
the taste was not objectionable and it was delightfully cool. As I was well
up to my timetable I was glad to accept the Governor’s pressing invitation
to lunch. The meal followed so promptly on my acceptance that obviously it
had been prepared in anticipation of our arrival. A huge platter was car
ried in on which was a mound of hot rice surmounted by a sheep roasted
whole and stuffed with chickens and fried rice and boiled eggs. There were
the usual supplementary dishes of stew, curry and sweetmeats. The
Governor excused himself from eating with us on the grounds that he suf
fered from some internal disorder, the nature of which I did not venture to
enquire. Experience had shown me that such enquiries are often aswered at
interminable length and with embarrassing frankness. My party and I gath
ered around the great platter which with its satellite dishes had been
placed on the ground in our midst and in spite of th^heat did full justice
A.
to the food. Lunch was followed by more coffee and in addition small glas
ses of sweet mint-flavoured milkless tea which the Governor assured me was
an excellent digestive. He was probably right as we none of us suffered
any ill-effects from overeating.
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' [15r] (29/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x00001e> [accessed 14 March 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.