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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [127r] (253/336)
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.
125
all over again. His progress was incredibly rapid. What happened if the
rope broke I don’t know, presumably another cutter had to be found. When he
had reached the fruit he undid a thin rope which was fastened to his waist
and trailed behind him as he climbed and fastened one end around the trunk.
One of the watchers on the ground took the other end of this rope and
walked a few yards away from the palm with it until it descended at a steep-
ish angle from the trunk. Meanwhile the cutter, who was leaning back in his
loop with both hands free to work, took his knife from his waist and, cutt
ing through the thick fibrous stalk of the first cluster of fruit, let it
fall onto the rope where the fruit fell evenly on either side in an astoni
shing way and it slid down to be caught by the men on the ground where it was
lifted off and thrust into a matting bag. As I watched the clusters of
dates came down one after the other in rapid succession until the tree was
cleared of fruit and his work done, the cutter came down by the simple method
of reversing the procedure which had got him up the palm. The sacks or bags
of dates were carried away on donkeys and the entertainment over, I came down
from the roof, had supper and went to bed.
I slept outside with my servants sleeping on the ground close by and at half
past three in the morning I had but to call out to rouse them. Call out I
did, and having seen them all on their feet I turned over and slept for
another hour in the hope, which I well knew to be vain, that when I woke
again the packing would have been done and the loading commenced. The pack
ing was done, but the usual altercations with the camel and donkey men were
only just beginning, and rather wearily I rose. Arguing before dawn is a
soul-destroying business and it is sufficient to say that after a verbally
strenuous hour, the Qarlyat party faded into the night. The last to disap
pear was the cook, leading a small donkey of which he was obviously terrified.
We left shortly afterwards, Naser and I riding donkeys and Saleh a riding
camel, with three donkey men and two spare animals laden with water bottles
and our light luggage.
After leaving the garden we followed the
wadi
A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
for some distance and then
turned east and climbed a steep rocky path over the hills behind the garden
and as dqwn was breaking, found ourselves in very rough and broken country.
The path ran in and out among the rocks and up and down the sides of small
wadis, seldom keeping on the level for more than half a mile at a time.
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' [127r] (253/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x000036> [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.