Skip to item: of 336
Information about this record Back to top
Open in Universal viewer
Open in Mirador IIIF viewer

'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [‎37r] (73/336)

This item is part of

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.

Apply page layout

THE BRASS PENCASE
On my twenty-fourth birthday I was in Meshed and from the Persian equiva
lent of a rag-and-bone man, I bought for a few krans and old brass pen-
case. Just an oblong box in thick brass with a hinged lid —^ * n
A*vjl
v/hich the pens are kept with, attached to one side, a small brass inkwell
with a tiny scallop shell lid. It is pleasantly engraved with writing in
Persian script and gleams pleasingly on an old oak chest in my dining
room far from the land of its birth.
0O0
In 1927 I was a subaltern in the 5th Battalion, The Baluch Regiment, KGO
(Jacob's Rifles) of four years*” standing, stationed in Quetta in
Baluchistan and no less impecunious than my contemporaries, having dis
covered already that my tastes were not those proper to an income of £450
a year. Even in those days when living was much cheaper than it is today,
a subaltern’s pay did not go very far, and when the monthly Mess bill had
been met, the servants paid, and the groom's bill settled, there was not
much left over for such frivolities as the Quetta Club. In fact, I gave
up going to the Club and was duly taken to task by my Commanding Officer
who considered it essential for the officers of his Regiment to meet
other officers and get to know and be known to their contemporaries in the
other arms of the Service, and nowhere could this be done more appropri
ately or easily than at the Club on a Saturday evening or a Sunday
morning.
The Quetta Club, before the earthquake, was a truly delightful place,
both in summer with its fine trees and lovely lawns, and in winter with
its cosy sitting and smoking rooms. The men had their own side of the
Club and the ladies theirs, the two parts being joined by a passage off
which led the large public and small private dining rooms. I seldom
ventured over to the ladies side looking, as I did, on "poodle-faking”,
as it was called, as something beneath the dignity of a real officer who
was still young enough to fend for himself. I supposed that some day I
should weaken and marry, but not until I was really old, almost as old
as our junior Major who must have been at least thirty-five years of age
at that time. An attitude of mind my Commanding Officer did nothing to

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

Use and share this item

Share this item
Cite this item in your research

'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [‎37r] (73/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/get-highlighted-words/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x00004a> [accessed 2 April 2025]

Link to this item
Embed this item

Copy and paste the code below into your web page where you would like to embed the image.

<meta charset="utf-8"><a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x00004a">'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [&lrm;37r] (73/336)</a>
<a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x00004a">
	<img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000880.0x0002de/Mss Eur F226_13_0073.jp2/full/!280,240/0/default.jpg" alt="" />
</a>
IIIF details

This record has a IIIF manifest available as follows. If you have a compatible viewer you can drag the icon to load it.https://www.qdl.qa/en/iiif/81055/vdc_100000000880.0x0002de/manifestOpen in Universal viewerOpen in Mirador viewerMore options for embedding images

Use and reuse
Download this image