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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [38r] (75/336)
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.
36
discourage. To have had impecunious married subalterns in the Regiment
would have been too appalling to contemplate; bachelors were so much more
useful and easier to deal with; they could scarcely complain of separation
when sent on Detachment nor had they wives to be difficult about
ac commo dation.
One Saturday afternoon at the beginning of April in 1927, I entered the
men's entrance of the Club my mind occupied with two important matters,
neither of which had anything to do with the opposite sex. I was feeling
or top of the world as I had been granted my first home leave and I found
it difficult to believe that in a very few days I would be ry own master
for a whole year, leave was longer in those days, but what was temporarily
of greater importance was that I had disposed of some old clothes unusually
wc\l the day l to u. defter from the Bazaar and I had the equivalent in
Evpees of two pounds, which was more than enough to take me to the Races
later that afternoon. Our Regimental band would be playing in all the glory
of their Rifle green tunics, cherry red plus fours and white gaiters and it
was a duty as well as a pleasure to be present. Two pounds would pay for
my entrance to the Enclosure and a good tea and leave enough over for a
modest bet on each race on the Tote even if, as usual, I lost every time.
Betting at the Quetta Races was rather more problematical than on the lar
ger race courses in India. To win it was necessary to know the owner's
intentions and the trainer's intentions which were not always in accord,
what the professional jockey had in mind, and last but not least, the capa
bilities of the horse. This last was often the most difficult of all to
assess and once I watched thrilled as the outsider I had backed ran away
and despite the strenuous efforts of the jockey to stop the silly animal,
won comfortably. The stewards did their best to ensure fair racing but it
was a very difficult task and they were often unequal to the forces
ranged against t er.
The Quetta course was beautifully situated and in the spring with the new
leaves coming out on the trees and the vivid green grass was a fit sett
ing for the crowd of well-dressed men and women who gathered round the
small grandstand with its two private boxes. One of these exclusive
reserves belonged to The honourable the Agent to the Governor-General, Sir
Fiederick Johnson, and the other to His highness Major Haju Sir Mir
Mohammed Yar Khan, the Khan of Kalat, from whom the area of the Military
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' [38r] (75/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x00004c> [accessed 19 July 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.