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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [42r] (83/336)
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.
and make our way across very rough country. We negotiated two passes with
out mishap in spite of the fact that thefe was precious little room to spare
between the large car and the unfenced edge of the so-called road with, in
places, a sheer drop of five hundred feet. In spite of the rough going, we
managed to average fourteen miles an hour and took rather more than twelve
hours from Hurmulk to the village of Shusp. We never stopped for lunch on
the whole journey but always took something cold with us and Bill and I ate
in the back of the car while Mrs Nisbet fed the Colonel on dates and bis
cuits while he drove. Shusp was inhabited and we were comfortably housed in
the Consular Rest House.
The next day's trip from Shusp to the large town of Birjand was only a little
over a hundred miles and we had a very easy drive and arrived quite early in
the afternoon. It had been arranged that we would all stay at the Bank house
but unfortunately the manager's wife was ill and he could not accommodate
more than four of us, so I suggested that Bill and I should go over to the
palace of the Shaukat-al-Mulk who had recently given up the appointment of
Governor General of the province and to whom I had a letter of introduction
from an officer in my regiment who had been stationed at Birjand at the end
of the war in command of the Levies. At the entrance gates of the palace I
handed the letter of introduction to the custodian and in no time a superior
servant arrived and conducted us to a guest-house. Here we were given rooms
on the first floor which led out of an extraordinary rectangular reception
room, the floor of which was covered with most beautiful carpets froi*.
Kashan. The walls of the reception room were decorated with elaborate
plasterwork which was literally encrusted with pieces of looking-glass until
the whole place shone and sparkled in the light of the numerous oil lamps
that were produced. Bottles of whisky and Persian wine stood on a carved
table in the middle of the room, but what we wanted more than anything else
was water and this proved unexpectedly difficult to obtain, in fact impos
sible; our efforts to explain in Persian what we wanted resulted in the
appearance of a dozen large bottles of beer. So we sat down on padded
quilts on the carpets and drank beer. A sort of secretary person appeared
while we were so engaged and informed us that we would dine with the
Shaukat at 8 p.m. and that we should wear ’’simple clothes”. Our vocabulary
would not allow us to obtain a definition of the term "simple clothes” so
in order to be on the safe side we unpacked our dinner jackets and were
looking rather smart when the secretary appeared to conduct us to the main
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' [42r] (83/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x000054> [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.