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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [104r] (207/336)
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.
102 -
Unfortunately I did not have time to visit again the hospital which has been
constructed close to the boundary between the Fadli and Lower Yafa states
and which has been functioning for some years.
After lunch we came back to the beach and drove on for thirty iuiles to the
village of Shukru where the road leaves the beach anc makes its way over the
barren ridgos of the coastal range. Late in the afternoon we arrivedat Loder
and there among the orange groves was the four-storied house which I was to
occupy during my stay. The house had large windows and was furnished in
western and custom style so that either 1 could relax on gaily coloured
mattresses with masses of cushions or sit at ease in an armchair with a table
at my elbow. My host, Sultan Nasor bin tvlchamsed, the Sultan’s cousin, was
the Sultan's representative cn the plain,lands and in the Puler's absence,
attending to his Ministerial duties in Aden pending the completion of the
Federal Administrative Capital at Ittihad on the opposite side cf the harbour
to Aden and in Protectorate territory, controls the territory from Zara the
capital. The towers of Zara were less than a mile from my horse and there
had been little change with the exception that the Sultan himself had ceased
to live in his tower on the hill and had built for himself a more modern
house at a lower level with large windows, a sure sign of the increase in
security without which no progress and no development can take place.
My time at Lodsr passed all too quickly walking among the fields of cauli
flowers and cabbages and around the orange groves in tho morning and shooting
M chickor” among the foothills of the great escarpment in the afternoon. My
host never failed to visit me at least once a day and the two younger broth
ers of the Sultan were my constant and delightful companions. One was emp
loyed in the State Administration and tho other was in command of the
detachment of the Federal Guards stationed in the area. Their spare time was
devoted to my entertainment and comfort and never have I felt so much at home.
My host's father, Sultan Mohammed bin Jabil, the one-time all-powerful Regent
I did not see. No longer a power in the land, he is a dim figure from the
past, hidden in his tower on Zara hill, preoccupied with religious exercises
and the Pilgrimage to Mecca which he performs every year.
In the evening, pleasantly tired after wandering over the hills In search of
"chlckor”, I would sit with my friends and erstwhile servants, Naser and
Salem Naser Aulaki and his young brother Mohammed, a lad still at school.
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' [104r] (207/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x000008> [accessed 14 March 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.