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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [16r] (31/336)
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.
14
At three o’clock in the afternoon I bade farewll to my hospitable host and,
amid a chorus of good wishes for the journey and a safe return, we were
once more away across the stony wastes along a less well defined track.
When we had covered seventy miles of country of an indescribable barren
ness I decided to halt for the night close to a herd of camels who, with
expressions of grave contempt, were grazing on a number of remarkably dry
and thorny bushes. No sooner had we halted than Adas who had been acting
as guide since lunch, announced that he thought we had come the wrong way
and added that that had been his impression for some time past. I was
very annoyed, but as usual my annoyance was a complete waste of energy and
achieved nothing. Back we drove the way we had come until we met the lorry
which had been unable to k*ep up with us. The lorry driver, being part
owner of the vehicle, treated it with the exaggerated care of another with
an only child. An argument started between Adas and the lorry driver which
resulted in Adas being convinced that we were on the right track and so we
returned to the previously selected camping site. My camp bed was put
togetner and very soon I was sitting on it eating cold chicken and listen
ing to the war news from the BBC on my battery wireless receiver while the
rest of the party sat about on the sandy ground eating whatever their fancy
had induced them to bring for supper. By 8.30 p.m. I was tocJsleepy to
listen any longer to the wireless and the men having taken their rifles and
lain"down with them in a circle around our transport, I turned it off and
went to sleep.
We slept with only one interruption until two o’clock in the morning. The
interruption was caused by a fox with a lovely brush calling in at midnight
attracted by the smell of the chicken bones I had thrown away. The serv
ants, suddenly disturbed, thought it was a wolf and the fox was lucky to
escape with a fright from the stream of bullets which followed it as it
fled in the moonlight across the desert. By half past two we had packed
and were off along the track, the normally drab unprepossessing country
looking strangely weird and beautiful by the light of the moon. The lorry
led as the driver knew the way and I dozed while Naser drove my car. I
wanted to conserve my energies for the Dhahna Sands which lay between the
wells of Ram* ah on the far side where I knew there was a Saudi Government
W/T Station. At 4.30 a.m. we reached Ma’gla and except for the well saw
little of the place in the half light of dawn. We filled up with water and
I took over from Naser and we set off for the redoubtable sands which, in
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' [16r] (31/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x000020> [accessed 30 June 2026]
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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.