!['"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [‎122r] (243/336)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000880.0x0002de/Mss Eur F226_13_0243.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "'\"NO MEDALS THIS TIME\" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [‎122r] (243/336)")
'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [122r] (243/336)
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.
120
the town of Matrah which Ilea In the next bay to Muscat and which It outdoes
In siae but not In cleanliness. The flies of Matrah I shall always remember,
and the beach In front of the town was something once smelt at low tide never
forgotten. Not only was it a public latrine, but it always seemed to be lit
tered with fish guts and other nolsesome things decaying in the sun. Maybe
it has now all been cleaned up and is as sanitary as Muscat always was, but
over twenty years ago it was a place to be avoided.
We left Matrah by the picturesque Bab al Tuyan, or the Gate of the Wells, and
followed the rocky valley which led to Beit al Falaj, the headquarters of the
Muscat infantry, a force recruited primarily from Baluchies. Here also was
the Royal Air Force landing ground, a rather tricky affair on a slope not made
any easier by being surrounded on three sides by high hills. The approach and
take off were normally from and to the open seaward end over the white fort of
Belt al Falaj. Once on a special mission I took off into the hills in a DC2
and we cleared them by less than twenty feet. On that occasion as we became
airborne and rushed at the wall of rock, I thought that my promising career
was over and I closed my eyes and folded my hands and waited for the end and
did not open them again until I heard a voice saying in a tone of considerable
surprise that we were safely over the top. It was the Assistant Director of
Civil Aviation in India who was the co-pilot on that excursion. Passing
between the fort and the landing ground we drove through the pleasant little
village of Ruhi which is surrounded by cultivation for most of the year. In
the late summer it is completely deserted when the inhabitants move up the
Batlnah Coast, man, woman, and child, to help with the date harvest in the
extensive date gardens for which that area is famed.
A mile beyond Ruhi we turned left off the main road along a side track and
traversed slowly a series of stony valleys each more desolate than the last
until, some eighteen miles from Hagar, we came out on to flat open ground and
at last I was able to drive at a reasonable speed. The only vegetation was a
few thorny bushes with here and there an elb tree and the only living things
we passed were an occasional herd of goats with a shepherd boy and one or two
wayfarers on donkeys or camels, dressed in the usual dirty-white night shirts
with silver-sheathed daggers at their waists and their rifles on their shoul
ders. The open ground ended when we entered the
Wadi
A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
Hagar and drove down
amid the boulders with which it is littered to the gardens, a pleasant sight
with the tall green palms waving in the light breeze above the great mud
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' [122r] (243/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x00002c> [accessed 4 October 2024]
https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x00002c
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_100094411639.0x00002c">'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [‎122r] (243/336)</a> <a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x00002c"> <img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000880.0x0002de/Mss Eur F226_13_0243.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.