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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [124r] (247/336)
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.
122
the donkey and Naser vent to the camel's head. In no time the three were
once more united and a piece of cord was found to replace the broken girth
and we parted the best of friends and travelled on without any untoward hap
pening until we were within a few miles of our destination. Then, suddenly,
the engine began to behave very strangely: it lost power and started to
cough in a most alarming manner. We were so near to our destination that I
was unwilling to stop unless I had to in case the wretched thing would not
start again. My knowledge of the mechanism of a motor car is very limited,
but when the most horrifying metallic noises came from inside the bonnet, even
I realised that this was not just a case of dirty plugs. It was as if the
whole engine was disintegrating and my doubts about stopping were resolved for
me by the car doing so of its own accord. Naser jumped out to open the bonnet
and I sat in my seat at the wheel with a feeling of the utmost depression,
unwilling to go and look at the shambles that was once an engine. Naser was
dressed in a khaki gown made from the light brown coloured cotton grown in the
territory. Round his waist was an ornate cartridge belt with brass-bound cross
belts over his shoulders. He opened the bonnet and with an astonished epxres-
sion on his face, called me to join him. I did so very reluctantly, expecting
the worst and was surprised to see the engine all in one piece but something
seemed to be missing. It was. The round tin affair which is about the size
of a 4-lb box of chocolates and cleans the air for the engine had disappeared.
It had made its way over the top of the cylinders and was lying among various
important-looking pipes on the far side of the engine. In my last car this
affair was filled with steel fibre, and Naser fished it out, delighted that
the damage was no worse, and held it up in the air with both hands in triumph.
Immediately the atmosphere became full of hot oil and only by a spasmodic leap
to one side did I avoid being drenched; not so my unfortunate servant who was
holding the source of the hot fluid. Mercifully it missed his face and spread
itself down the front of his gown destroying the smart appearance on which he
prided himself. Except for the mess, no damage was done and the oil bath was
quickly restored to its proper place where if functioned just as well without
oil as it had when full.
By three o'clock we were in sight of the garden at Suaklm. A long palm grove
running down one side of the
wadi
A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
with low hills behind it and facing a steep
ridge fifteen hundred feet high on the far side of the
wadi
A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
. This garden has
no enclosing wall and is a pleasant place of green lime trees among the palms,
with running water in stone and cement channels, and a small white house to
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' [124r] (247/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x000030> [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.