!['"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [‎110r] (219/336)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000880.0x0002de/Mss Eur F226_13_0219.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "'\"NO MEDALS THIS TIME\" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [‎110r] (219/336)")
'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [110r] (219/336)
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.
108 -
leapt Into the cab of the tanker and started the engine while the Persian
kept the bedouin at bay with the hose. Then, as the lorry began to move, he
turned the water off, hung up the hose and jumped on the back. When we were
clear of the bedouin I stopped and he joined me In the driver's cab and I
thanked him for being so quick, but all he said was, "when dogs fight one
throws cold water over them". I looked at him and was minded to break his
head but I restrained myself. After all, he had done me a service and I let
the insult pass.
Sometimes of course really serious things can happen and what I have to tell
you now is only what I have myself been told. I was not concerned personally
in this dreadful business. A driver of a water tanker similar to the one I
used to drive was employed on a daily run to the camp of some oil geologists
who were surveying north of Kuwait near the Iraq border. One day the driver
was returning from the camp to Kuwait with his tanker rather less than half
full when he overtook a party|of six men walking down the main road. They
waved to him to stop and he did so and found that they were Iraqis who were
going to Kuwait in search of work. Unfortunately they had not got any pass
ports and were afraid of being stopped and sent back by a patrol of the
Kuwait police. They pleaded with the driver to let them travel inside the
water tank. At first he refused saying he would lose his job if he was
found out and that anyway it was dangerous, as going over a bump one of them
might lose his footing and slip and break a leg, and he would not have any
thing to do with the idea. Eventually he was persuaded to agree to their
proposal when the price they were willing to pay was raised to three dinars
a head. He unfastened the manhole on the top of the tanker and the men
climbed inside. He left the manhole open so that they could get some air
and climbed back into his cab, and started off. The road is, as you know,
very rough and the men could not keep their feet inside the tanker and
quickly regretted that they ever entered the tanker. They shouted to the
driver to stop but he could not hear them above the noise made by the engine,
and they could not climb out. You will remember that the tanker was nearly
half full. Then suddenly when jolting over a very bad place in the road, the
lid of the manhole closed on its own. These tankers are very slow and it
must have been six hours later when, after having passed the Mutlah police
post without being questioned, the driver stopped a couple of miles outside
Kuwait to let the men out and walk into the town. He climbed out of his cab
and saw, to his horror, that the manhole lid was closed. They are heavy and
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
Use and share this item
- Share this item
'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [110r] (219/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x000014> [accessed 13 January 2025]
https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x000014
Copy and paste the code below into your web page where you would like to embed the image.
<meta charset="utf-8"><a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x000014">'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [‎110r] (219/336)</a> <a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x000014"> <img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000880.0x0002de/Mss Eur F226_13_0219.jp2/full/!280,240/0/default.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
This record has a IIIF manifest available as follows. If you have a compatible viewer you can drag the icon to load it.https://www.qdl.qa/en/iiif/81055/vdc_100000000880.0x0002de/manifestOpen in Universal viewerOpen in Mirador viewerMore options for embedding images
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.