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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [125r] (249/336)
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.
123 -
one side raised above the
wadi
A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
bed. The house had a small, enclosed garden
of Its own with an open cistern in which it was possible to bathe. I parked
the car behind the house and the work of transferring the kit to the house
began forthwith. While we were so engaged the maritime part of the expedi
tion strolled through the garden led by the clerk who announced that they
had arrived at Qariyat the previous evening and had obtained three camels
and seven donkeys. I sent him to obtain drinking water, chickens and eggs
and vegetables, and instructed him to hand them over to the cook and desire
him to get to work as soon as possible.
As soon as the cook’s wants had been supplied and the luggage stowed in the
house, I called a conference to plan the next day's journey. I shall not
weary the reader with the endless arguments and the flatly contradictory
statements made by the camel men and the donkey men. Having heard every
body's point of view at least three times, I decided that the main body must
go on by sea while Naser, and Saleh the scent merchant, and I travelled by
land. Our next night's halt was to be at Dhibah, a seaside village said to
be about six hours distance by land from Suakim which we would reach by
travelling via the village of Hail al Gaaf which again was "said to be" the
half way mark. I use the expression "said to be" because time is of little
moment in these parts and one gains only the vaguest idea of distance from
the invariably contradictory statements of the local experts. Having given
orders to the clerk to set off with his party back to Qariyat before dawn
the next morning and embark as soon as he arrived in the launch for Dhibah,
there to procure lodgings for us and have food prepared against our arrival,
I went into the house and sitting down on the carpet that my servants had
spread for me, had a late lunch of tea and curry puffs which I had brought
with me. A curry puff is a cylinder of pastry stuffed with curried meat on
the principle of the sausage roll and in civilisation is death to me but
away from armchairs and office stools, they suit me very well.
After lunch I strolled through the gardens and enjoyed the green of the
palms and the soft shadows of the lime trees and above all, the running
water so restful to tired eyes after the glare and barrenness of the day's
Journey. No wonder the Muslim paradise is a place of greenery and cool
streams. At sunset I returned and climbed up onto the flat roof of the
house. A pleasant, dry, though scarcely cool, breeze was blowing up the
wadi
A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
and 1 sat down to watch the coming and going of people in the
wadi
A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
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' [125r] (249/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x000032> [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.