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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [107r] (213/336)
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.
105 -
So I said nothing and vent back to the car and the passengers laughed and
said I had been lucky.
I was doing very veil until the Saudi Government decreed that only Saudi sub
jects could have taxi permits in Jedda and I had to sell the car at a loss
and I vent to Riyadh more in debt than I had ever been before. The police
are oppressors. When I drove slovly they cursed me and beat my car vlth
their sticks and vhen I drove fast the shameless ones threatened to beat me,
an Aulakl. There is no justice in this vorld and Riyadh vas no exception. I
made friends vith a sergeant of the traffic police there. It vas essential
that I should do this because, you see, I was not a Saudi subject and he
could have been very troublesome. I used to give him a rial vhenever ve met
vhlch vas expensive but worth the money and he treated me very kindly. One
evening I vas sitting in my taxi on the taxi-stand waiting for a fare vhen a
man in civilian clothes came up to my car and greeted me and as I leaned out
to return the greeting, he kissed me on my face. I vas shocked and horrified
at this shamelessness in such a public place. I hit him in the face vith my
fist through the vlndow and as he staggered back I wrenched open the door of
my car and jumped out to hit him again. Then I saw by the light of a street
lamp that it vas the sergeant of police. I had not recognised him because I
had never seen him out of uniform before, and I remembered vith alarm that
unlike my own country, here it vas customary for men friends to greet each
other in this vay and it had not the same meaning as it vould elsevhere. It
cost me ten rials to make that man understand that I had not recognised him
and had hit him by mistake.
It vas not long before I vas in trouble again. I rented a house in Riyadh
and as a householder I vas on the list of the local mosque. Attendance at
the dawn prayers is compulsory and sometimes the police check the attendance
as the people leave the mosque after prayers. As you knew, I have never
liked getting up early and I vould not have bothered to attend at all but a
friend of mine vho shared the house with me warned me that if I was absent
vhen the police made one of their checks, I vould be in serious trouble. One
night I had been working late and overslept in the morning and vas awakened
at half past eight by a banging on my door. I got up and vent down the
stairs to find two policemen standing outside. They said I had been absent
from prayers and vas under arrest. They allowed me to dress myself and then,
one on each side, marched me through the streets to the Sheikh. On the vay
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' [107r] (213/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x00000e> [accessed 14 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.