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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [89r] (177/336)
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.
87
the market is favourable. We climbed up the hill path until we were just
below the principal tower where I dismounted. The path had become too steen
for Shi’an and I finished the ascent on foot and found the Sultan waiting to
receive roe at the door. It was our turn to salute first and Naser and Napi
fired in the air and the Stiltan's soldiers returned the compliment. We
entered the great tower together and walked up the broad staircase to the
second floor and came into a long spacious room with a number of windows.
The room was, rather surprisingly, furnished with two bedsteads covered with
bright cloths and a table and chairs. Rifles hung around the walls and
goats-hair country-made rugs covered the floor.
The Sultan was very good looking and naturally of a cheerful disposition, a
smile never far from his mobile mouth. He was dressed in precisely the same
way as his tribesmen, as was his cousin, Jabil bin r/ohammed, the Regent’s
eldest son who had followed us into the room with two or three other people.
Jabil bin Mohammed was a year or more older than the Sultan and in different
circumstances might himself have been elected as Sultan instead of Saleh;
at the time of the election the plateau was in the armed occupation of the
Imam or King of the Yemen and Jabil hinst&f was a hostage in the prison at
Seidha, chained by the leg. That the tribesmen should have preferred Saleh
who was free is understandable. Whether or not that had anything to do with
their choice I don't know, but whatever may have been the reason for his
election, it was the finest thing that ever happened to the tribe as the
years were to s^ow.
Saleh and I sat down facing each other on either side of the table and as we
did, so the Regent was announced and we rose to greet him. Sultan Mohammed
bin Jabil was in a cheerful frame of mind for which I was grateful as the
Governor in Aden had instructed me to discuss one or two difficult problems
with him and the Sultan, and it was as well to start off in a friendly atmos
phere, even though I feared that what I had to say was unlikely to prolong
the cheerful mood until the end of the interview. After th usual polite
exchange of cordialities, the servants were dismissed and when the three of
us were alone around the table, the business which had brought me to Tiara was
begun. As the talks progressed the Regent's face changed and his temper
began to rise, but the explosion when it came was from outside and not inside
the room. Thunder and lightning and heavy rain fell with a roar and we broke
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' [89r] (177/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x0000b2> [accessed 5 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.