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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [88r] (175/336)
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.
- 86 -
Soon after sunrise Naser and I and a villager set out to walk the five miles
to Zara, the towers of which I could make out through my field-glasses at
the eastern end of a range of hills which ran across the plain. We walked
over the fields which here were terraced with earthen banks. I was told
that it was forbidden to make the retaining walls of stone because the flood
water after rain is directed by channels to the upper fields and from there
overflows through openings in the banks to the fields at a lower level so
that all may benefit. The size of these openings is governed by tribal law
and where the force of the water causes breaches in the banks, it is for
bidden to fill them in while the flood is in progress. A wasteful way of
doing things, but it seems to have worked well for hundreds of years. After
covering half the distance to Zara, we were net by a solitary soldier lead
ing a horse. It was Nagi, the Beihani, a refugee from the Amirate of
Beihan fifty miles away to the
fled from his home when his two brothers had been killed in a blood feud and
he was himself in danger of sufferinp the same fate. e was an old acquain
tance whose leg I had treated with success on r. ; rcvious visit. I had found
that iodoform and boracic powder can do wonders for ulcers and never trav
elled in the Protectorate without them and a few other simple drugs. The
horse was also no stranger and was called Shi’an and had belonged to Sultan
Hussein bin Jabil and his son had sent it as a kindly gesture. Nagi tried
to persuade me to ride, but I knew the animal of old and preferred to walk.
The last time I had seen it Hussein himself had insisted on my riding and a
very rough passage I had had until I dropped th
upon it had calmed down and given no more trouble. It was sad to be met by
the servant and the horse and not by the master who lay beneath his white
tomb among the trees below the Zara hills. I felt stupidly sentimental.
By the time we reached the dry bed of the stream which sweeps past the
houses of the soldiers and servants clustered at the foot of the Zara ridge
on which stand the stone towers of the ruling family, I v/as tired and yiel
ded to Nagi’s entreaties that I should ride up the hill and mounted Shi’an
and he gave me no trouble at all. Zara has no market and is simply the
official headquarters of the Sultan. Here the caravans come to pay their
dues on their way to the nearby town of Loder; here the Regent grants
audiences and directs the affairs of the Sultanate and here taxes are collec'
ted in kind in the form of grain and oil and stored later to be sold when
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' [88r] (175/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x0000b0> [accessed 20 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.