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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [116r] (231/336)
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.
'3
114 -
comfortable chairs while we waited for lunch and Sultan Abdullah bin Ahmad
came to call and stayed to lunch. Older and stouter but otherwise unchanged,
he now deals with court cases and takes no part in the administration which
is the sole responsibility of Sultan Jabll.
After an ample lunch with vegetables and fruit and numerous dishes of salad,
I was taken to see the house being built for the Sultan on a nearby hill. On
the way we paused to Inspect the new hotel which was nearing completion, the
building of which has been sponsored by the Sultan and Jabll. Small fields
of lucerne were welcome patches of green in the bare landscape. Winter up
here is like winter in England with all the fruit trees leafless and the grain
crop only Just above ground. On our way back we passed close to the greatly
extended landing ground all complete with the usual wind sock and W/T station.
Mukelras is served by dally flights for passengers and freight by Aden Airways
Limited which, during the vegetable season, are increased by additional
freight services. Near the landing ground I could see a number of lorries
which had brought passengers and goods from Beidha for onward transport by air
to Aden.
Peace reigned along the border and Sultan Jabil co-operated with the Yemeni
Governor of the Beidha province to deal promptly with any minor breaches of
security which were, so I was told, now of rare occurrence. This happy state
of affairs denoted no fundamental change of heart in the aged King of the
Yemen, but was due largely to that gentleman's preoccupation with the diffi
cult internal affairs of his own country combined with a wholesome respect
for our armed forces which had been brought about by their determined use in
dealing with Yemen raids. A constant reminder of our change of policy is the
presence in camp at Mukelras of a contingent of British troops who get on
very well Indeed with the local people and co-operate fully with Sultan Jabil
who was on the best of terms with their commanding officer.
After tea in Jabil's house we left Mukelras to return to Loder and we were a
merry party as we sped rapidly along to Has al Hadd. I was not looking for
ward with any pleasure to the six mile drive down the almost vertical cliffs
of the escarpment and when in fact in dead silence we commenced the descent
and had to reverse on two of the forty-five hairpin bends in order to get
safely round, I would have liked to have got out and walked. To say that I
was nervous would have been a gross understatement. Frankly I was extremely
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' [116r] (231/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x000020> [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.