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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [96r] (191/336)
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.
94 -
(S>
had joined. At this point there was no swelling at all but some three inches
lower do^n the swelling began and the man could scarcely bear his lefi to be
touched. The swollen part of the leg had become scaley and although he could
move neither his knee joint nor his ankle, there was some movement in the toes.
I was at a loss to understand the reason for the swelling. I had expected to
find a septic condition and none seemed to exist. I asked him if he had an
ulcer anywhere on his leg which was not visible and he said he had a sore on
the underside of his thigh. Unfortunately the slightest movement of the leg
caused him such agony that I was unable to have him moved so that I could
exarine the back of his thigh. The smell in the room was most unpleasant,
but there was nothing for it but to get under the bed and, with the aid of my
electric torch, see if I could find the sore. I did, it was five inches in
length and suppurating. By cutting away some of the strings of the bed, I was
able to get at it and applied a hot fomentation. I advised him strongly to
let me arrange for him to be flow to Aden where he would have the nursing and
care which were essential but he refused. All I could do was to provide his
wife with as much lint as I could spare and impressed on her that she must
apply a fomentation exactly as I had done every four hours. The man himself
was remarkably cheerful and tried to persuade me to have coffee with him but I
declined. The atmosphere in the room was too much for me and I could not bear
to remain a moment longer than was necessary.
I went over in the afternoon to see how my patient in A1 Hagar was getting on
and found him and the flies back inside the room. I looked at his wounds and
was glad to find he was no worse. I gave him some aspirin and showed him how
to take it later on before he went to sleep. I hoped it would ensure freedom
from pain long enough for him to get to sleep. I tried to persuade him to
come down by air on the following Monday to Aden with me but all he would say
was that he would think about it. On my way back I called in to see Ahmad's
father and mother and bad tea with them. It was so nice to be in their nice
clean house after the filth I had experienced in the morning.
On the following day I had arranged to walk over to Bilad Am Shur to have 1
lunch with Ahmad Hussein and just as I was setting out, Sultan Abdullah bin
Ahmad sent a message to say that as he had some land disputes to deal with
there, he would be coming as well, but was not quite ready to start so would
I please walk on ahead. Ahmad and I did so and were overtaken outside the
town by the boy Jabil bin Hussein riding a donkey and his maternal uncle,
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' [96r] (191/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x0000c0> [accessed 30 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.