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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [20r] (39/336)
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.
18
No sooner had my two companions and I sat down in the sitting room when a
servant appeared and placed an enqpty saucer on each of the side tables. I
enquired what they were for and was told for the convenience of visitors.
I noticed with surprise the obvious outline of a cigarette case in the poc
ket of the long night-shirt-like garment of the servant as he stopped over
the table. I had not realised how time had softened the harsh puritanism
of the Wahabis. What is done in the privacy of the house is the concern of
the master of the house and no-one else and when Ibn Saud is pleased to
entertain a European guest, his servants very properly consider his needs.
Ash-trays would have been going a little too far perhaps, or maybe they
were not available in Riyadh. There was in fact as much smoking in Riyadh
as there was in Kuwait but it was indulged in discreetly inside the houses
and never in a street or public place or in the presence of Ibn Saud
himself.
We drank coffee and tea and talked until three o'clock in the afternoon when
lunch was announced. Immediately after lunch Rushdi Mulhas and his comoan-
ion took their leave and I was at liberty to explore my domain. I found
that the shower worked and that one of the water closets was of the eastern
pattern, just a hole in the floor, and the other of the, to me, more conven
tional western pattern with a broken flushing handle; however, the lid of
the cistern had been removed so that the closet could be flushed by hand;
the seat also was detached but this was less inconvenient. I took off my
outer garments and, lying on the bed, closed my red, dust-filled eyes and
promptly fell asleep. An hour later I came back reluctantly to semi
consciousness and became dimly aware that Rushdi Mulhas was standing by the
side of the bed talking about something. On the third or fourth repetition
it penetrated my sleep-clogged mind that he was announcing that Ibn Saud
would receive me in half an hour at the Marabah Palace, I leapt to my feet,
shooed him out of the room, stripped and completed the waking up process
with a wonderfully cool shower. I dressed in my best fine white cotton
clothes, added black socks and evening shoes and, completing the picture
with my best gold-embroidered cloak and a white muslin head cloth tastefully
embroidered with white cotton "forget-me-nots", I was ready. I hurried
downstairs to find Rushdi Mulhas standing by his car. Calling hurriedly to
Naser to follow in my car, I climbed in and we drove off rapidly to keep
our appointment with His Majesty.
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' [20r] (39/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x000028> [accessed 26 December 2024]
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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.