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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [108r] (215/336)
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.
106
we met my friend and he asked me what was wrong and I said it was what he
had spoken of. The police tried to make him come and give evidence against
me but he refused, saying he had no knowledge of the matter as although he
lived with me, he had been away all night and had not been home. At the
Police Station the Sheikh questioned me closely and I lied and maintained
that I bed been present at the prayers. The Sheikh decided that I should
take an oath on the Koran that what I said was true. This I could not do,
so desperately looking for some way of escape, he had a leather whip in his
hand, I said I had prayed and left before the roll call and gone back to bed
and that first the police should take oath that I was not there. After all
they had accused me and it was for them to prove by oath the truth of what
they said. I was very frightened because I was not sure whether or not they
were certain that I was not present or whether some enemy had told them that
I did not always go to prayers. I waited with terror in my heart and then,
praise be to God, they said they could not take oath. For some minutes the
Sheikh looked at me and then he warned me to be careful to attend always and
struck the table with his whip to make his meaning clear. I gave thanks to
God and left Riyadh that same day for Kuwait.
In Kuwait I found employment with a contractor who provided a water-tanker
service for the Kuwait Government. I drove one of the big tankers and was
well paid, but trouble did not leave me though I was able to remain long
enough in the sheikhdom to pay my debts in Saudi Arabia. It was my duty to
deliver drinking water to the bedouin in the desert. It was an order that
each man received two and half measures of water and normally it was an easy
job. I drove the tanker and my assistant measured out the water when we
arrived on our weekly call at each encampment of black tents. In summer the
bedouin, with their flocks and herds, remain close to the permanent wells
and I did not have to drive out in the heat and the sand storms which are
often very severe and blow for days at a time. However, our misfortunes
always travel with us and occasionally things did not go too smoothly. I
remember one day a very bad tempered bedouin demanded that I give him three
full measures and when I refused, he got very excited and seized me by the
shirt and shouted, pointing to the measure, "Fill it up, oh! donkey!!" in a
loud voice and everyone laughed. I was furious at this gross Insult, as
your Excellency knows there are few worse terms of abuse in our language,
and I shook my fist under the fellow's nose and, pointing to a ewe tied to
the rope of his tent, I said, "See that ewe by your tent. I am a foreigner
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' [108r] (215/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x000010> [accessed 4 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.