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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [55r] (109/336)
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.
53 -
dhovs and big canoes, or hand lining from their small single-seater canoes.
It was a hard life and for most of the year there was little enough to be
made out of it, but during the monsoon period, when the shoals of king fish
follow the sardines close in-shore, more could be made in one night than in
the whole of the rest of the year.
One particularly disagreeable, hot, and humid Saturday afternoon with a
thick haze during the monsoon season, I set out to drive over to Bureikha.
Although the gale force winds had dropped, the heavy monsoon seas were roll
ing into the harbour and I could see them breaking in sheets of spray over
the Union Club terrace and the Prince of Wales landing pier as I left my
house. I drove through the shopping centre of Tawahl with the coal grounds
on my left and the cotton trees of the gardens on my right, over the tops
of which could be seen the shops of the Crescent and in the midst of which
loomed the statue of Queen Victoria dwarfing the surrounding shrubs that
struggled with insufficient water to survive in the salty soil. After pass
ing the reclaimed area empty except for the Port Trust and Anglo Iranian
Oil Company buildings on the far side on the edge of the harbour, there were
more coal grounds and the ramshackle lines of the
coolies
A term used to describe labourers from a number of Asian countries, now considered derogatory.
employed by the
shipping companies to coal their ships. Then I went through the Hedjuff gap
and along the narrow, straight road which ran across the Ma'alla plain,
empty except for the Christian cemetery, a constant reminder of the uncer
tainty of life. Halfway across on the landward side of the plain was the
village of Manila, a sordid place of one-storey, stone-built houses with
here and there the much bigger and better-constructed warehouses of wealthy
Arab merchants. On the seaward side was the
dhow
A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean.
building area where these
fine sailing craft had been built for more than a thousand years. I never
ceased to enjoy wandering about among the vessels great and small drawn up
on the beach for overhaul and repairs and chatting to the carpenters. After
Ma'alla I passed the rocky spur which runs down from Jebel Shams an crowned
by the old Indian Infantry Mess where, at one time, it is said, Zaglul
Pasha
An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
of Egypt had been interned. Below the Mess is the Police Post of Bab as \
Salaam and a vaccination centre where tribesmen were vaccinated before they\
entered the main town. The sea was conveniently close at hand and the
simple souls could wash the serum off immediately and suffer no discomfort.
Beyond the police post at Bab as Salaam the same narrow road ran straight
along the Isthmus which joins Aden to the mainland with the golf course on
the right and the Royal Air Force landing ground on the left to the Italian
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' [55r] (109/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x00006e> [accessed 11 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.