!['"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [‎56r] (111/336)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000880.0x0002de/Mss Eur F226_13_0111.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "'\"NO MEDALS THIS TIME\" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [‎56r] (111/336)")
'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [56r] (111/336)
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.
- 54
salt works with their white-sailed water-lifting windmills and great piles
of salt awaiting shipment to India. After passing the salt works there was
just simply nothing until the village of Sheikh Othman was reached, thronged
with indigo-smeared tribesmen from the Protectorate and beyond. At the far
end of the village I turned to the left at the police station, which, with
its square clock tower, looked like a mission church that has seen better
days, and drove along the rough track to the village of Hiswa with its
groves of Toddy palms among which on a winter evening I have shot duck on
the pools of water which formed after there has been an unusually heavy
shower of rain. On the far side of the dry bed of the
Wadi
A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
A1 Kabir there
were more groves of palms and the country was refreshingly green until five
miles from Little Aden the palms ceased and the track led to a reddish,
flat, dusty plain which in winter time, after rain, became an impassable
wilderness of mud. Over to the left was another salt works belonging to a
Pars! family and the track disappeared into the level plain. I took my own
way across the plain, travelling at high speed for three miles before turn
ing sharply to the left on to a very rough track which struggled up a steep
valley between the barren hills of the Little Aden peninsula. At the top
of the valley there was a narrow pass which was sandy and a rather tricky
place, but once safely through I stopped the car and looked out over the
sand dunes which circled the bay of A1 Ghadir. Away to my left was the
white lime-washed tower of the police post above the village of Buraikha
and to the right the white dome of the Shrine, which gave its name to the
bay, nestling among the dark rocks which formed the northern end of the bay.
Driving down from the pass I crossed a flat depression and at last there
was nothing between me and the village except the very formidable white
sand dunes. In winter time they could be crossed by car and one could
drive right into the village but in summer the sand was much less solid and
I had found from bitter experience that it was less troublesome to leave the
car on the flat and scramble over the dunes on foot. The sound of my car
had been heard in the village and as I struggled to the top of the sand
dunes, I was met by Said, one of the leading fishermen who was an old friend,
and several other men who had come to help my servants carry the gear from
the car to my small cottage. When we had all shaken hands they slid down the
steep slope to the car and I paused for a moment and looked down at the
village. A collection of huts made from old packing cases, drift wood and
fishi.ng nets, it sprawled on the white sand from the water's edge to the
tower of the police post on the top of the highest dune. There were two
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
'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [56r] (111/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x000070> [accessed 15 June 2026]
https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x000070
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_100094411638.0x000070">'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [‎56r] (111/336)</a> <a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x000070"> <img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000880.0x0002de/Mss Eur F226_13_0111.jp2/full/!280,240/0/default.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
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
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.