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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [115r] (229/336)
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.
113 -
tractors and landrovers, and no attempt had been made to construct a proper
metalled road. The road up the pass was, I was told, too difficult for lor
ries at the present time but the resourceful locals had solved the problem
of the transport of goods by using their farm tractors with a trailer behind.
Naser's village had grown and his house now had two storeys and had expanded
into a series of buildings around a central courtyard. Further up the valley
on the spur overlooking the village well, he had built another two-storied
house and it was just below this house that the new road, it had been open
but a few weeks, commenced its incredibly difficult climb to the top of the
escarpment. In many places the road is not much wider than a landrover and
nowhere throughout its length of twists and bends is there a retaining wall
so the passengers on the outside have an unobstructed view of the way to
eternity. The views across the plain were quite magnificent, but as far as I
was concerned, were scarcely noticed. My gaze was on the road ahead and
occasionally upwards to see how much farther we had to climb. I had great
confidence in my host as a driver, if I had not had I should have got out
and walked, but I confess I was much relieved when at last, after a series of
hairpin bends which we just managed to negotiate without reversing, we were
up and once again on level ground. We all relaxed and conversation, which
had ceased as soon as we came to the last and most formidable part of the
climb, started again. The drive along the road from Ras al Hadd to Mukeiras
was a delight. There had been plenty of rain and all the wells were full and
the fields had been sown with barley and wheat and from time to time we passed
orchards of apricot and peach trees. We skirted around the town of Aryab
which did not seem to have changed with the passage of time except that the
orchards were far more extensive. Mukeiras was completely changed and had
become the capital of the plateau with the headquarters of the Sultan’s
Government. The town itself had grown out of recognition and I was hard put
to it to distinguish the old land marks. We drove to Sultan Jabil bin
Hussein’s stone house and found him waiting to receive us.
Jabil was the same alive individual that he had always been, although the
brightly coloured scarf on his head and his western overcoat, for there was
a cold wind blowing, were certainly not nearly as romantic as had been the
old indigo and oil, though far, far cleaner. I thought he seemed rather
strained in spite of his cheerfulness and was not surprised to hear a month
later that he had had an emergency operation for appendicitis. We sat in
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' [115r] (229/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x00001e> [accessed 15 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.