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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [71r] (141/336)
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.
1
- 69 -
Gono were the sand dunes, carted bodily away by great mechanical monsters,
and gone were some of the hills, their rock was needed for the great break
water which protects the new hax1>our where vast tankers came to discharge
crude oil from the Persian Golf and to load refined products for far and
near. The tank-farm of the oil company stood on reclaimed land at the base
of the harbour which once had been a delightful bay of white sand and blue
water where I had sailed and fished in the winter. We drove on past the
refinery with its silver cracking towers and the usual mass of curling, N x
twisting, aluminium-painted pipes, passed the modern schools and the residen
tial quarters of the oil company employees and came eventually to the bay of
A1 Ghadir.
Only two relics of the past remain. Over to the right was the shrine of A1
Ghadir and to the left the white police post which was no longer occupied,
even in theory. The village of Buraikha had completely disappeared. Maybe
the mosques are still there, I don't know, I could not see them among the
mass ox air-conditioned bungalows, each with a touch of greenery where some
small garden was being cultivated, and in which are housed the senior staff
of the refinery administration. The village had been moved bodily away and
the fishermen and their families now lived in an adjoining bay. Only Has
Dansfa was the same, but even the fish have gone, driven away by the oil
drifting out of the harbour on the tide and today the fishermen went far
afield for their harvest in power-driven boats with light, nylon nets. I
did not go to the new village where the son of Mohammed A1 Baj is now the
"Akir*, nor did 1 go to the other small village of Fukhum which was rapidly
being turned into a great military cantonment. I looked once more over the
familiar sea and the unfamiliar landscape with the great power station and
the tall mast from the top of which an incredibly beautiful flame shot out
\
where waste gas from the refinery was burnt night and day and drove back to
Government House where I was the guest of His Excellency.
t\ \
At Government House I found Said waiting to see me with his son
or "The Assistant", as the name would be rendered in English.
rather, young man - he has two sons of his own - was born one night when t s
was in Buraikha and as a compliment, was named after me. My own name being
too difficult, his father gave him the name by which my appointment was known
to the local people. They were both very well and comfortably off with their
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' [71r] (141/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x00008e> [accessed 7 April 2025]
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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.