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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [59r] (117/336)
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.
I
57 -
The haze had disappeared and I sat and watched light puffs of wind chasing
each other across the bay, setting up ripples on the surface of the water
which varied the light and shade and the colour in an entrancing manner.
The sun had set and quickly the light in the sky faded and the moon came
in to her own and the sea under the hills took on the deep blue of ink
while the rest of the bay gleamed in the moonlight like burnished silver.
Suddenly it was night and the stars showed faintly in the moonlight. Said
brought a pressure lamp and put it on a table behind me and I picked up my
copy of ’’Pickwick Papers” and was far awy in Mr Justice Stareleigh's court
listening to the eloquence of Sergeant Buzfuz when I became aware that
Said had returned and was standing just inside the circle of light which
threw into relief the smooth muscles of his chest and arms, deep brown
with a sheen of health like a fine bronze figure. He was watching me in
that disinterested way which he and his countrymen have when they want to
indicate that they have been forced to present themselves through the
insistence of a third party. I knew that he felt that the business was of
importance otherwise he would not have been there, but I knew also that if
I liked to pretend that he had come for a quiet chat he would humour me
and that it might well have been an hour before eventually he would have
led the conversation around to the real reason for his sudden appearance.
I was not pleased to be recalled to the present so soon and asked him
abruptly what he wanted. It seemed that the ”Akil” or head man had
arrived to see me with one or two minor troubles. I decided to see both
the "Akil” and the minor troubles forthwith.
The ”Akil”, one Mohammed A1 Haj, who was an elderly, dignified, rather
thin man, was provided with a chair as befitted his position while the
/'minor troubles”, who consisted of a woman, three fishermen and two small
boys, seated themselves on the sand just outside the ring of light. The
fiyst case concerned the woman who complained of criminal assult. She
was, she said, a virtuous and much injured female who had been wantonly
attacked: a view which was not shared by the "Akil” who mentioned that
? ther* were rumours, of course only rumours, which might well be without
foundation, that the woman who was from Hlswa, the village on the
Wadi
A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
at
Kabir, came to Buraikha for a certain reason which was not to purchase
old clothes as she had maintained. She was in fact a professional prostl-
tut* and he knew it. The defendant, a married fisherman, moved into the
circle of light to maintain that he had met her after dark when he warn
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' [59r] (117/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x000076> [accessed 15 June 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.