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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [128r] (255/336)
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.
126
By the side of the track a few heroic plants struggled for existence and
here and there a thorny bush survived, but otherwise there was no vegetation
at all In this desolate wilderness. After struggling along for two hours we
saw two gazelle, a male and a female, and off rushed Naser to try and pro
vide us with fresh meat for our evening meal while Saleh, from his vantage
point on the camel, shouted directions. Nothing came of it and Naser
returned to say that the gazelle had joined up with some donkeys and he had
been afraid to fire In case he killed a donkey. I was surprised that there
should be donkeys so far from civilisation, or what passed for it in these
parts, and was unfairly doubtful of Naser’s veracity but shortly afterwards
we rounded a bend in the track and there, to my astonishment, were two mag
nificent animals. Light grey in colour and larger than the domestic animal
and in such splendid condition were these wild asses that we sat motionless
staring at them. They watched us for two or three minutes and then the male,
a particularly fine animal, lost his nerve and followed by his mate, bounded
away. I pondered on a problem as we rode on. Who were the greater fools,
they who though asses in name were forced to live in this wilderness by
circumstances outside their control, or ourselves who came here entirely of
our own volition. It was a line of thought that I decided was unprofitable
to pursue.
The riding camel on which Saleh was mounted was delaying us badly. She was
dreadfully well bred and consequently of a highly nervous temperament and,
need it be said, very voluble. The Governor of Qariyat had sent the animal
on the express instructions of Bis Majesty the Sultan who held the view that
it would be undignified for the
Political Agent
A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency.
to make his entrance into
the town of Sur on the back of a donkey. I agree that there are more digni
fied ways of arriving, but it quickly became obvious that we would never
arrive at all if we were forced to keep pace with the temperamental female
who objected loudly and strenuously to going up hill or down hill, and the
track never seemed to do anything else. I decided that she must be sent
back from Hail al Gaaf unless the track improved to a degree consonant with
her ideas of travelling. In spite of this tiresome creature we reached the
soil-bottomed
wadi
A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
through which the main Qariyat-Hail al Gaaf track ran in
four hours and in another quarter of an hour we were among the palms, guavas,
and lime trees of the gardens of the village.
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' [128r] (255/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x000038> [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.