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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [133r] (265/336)
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.
131 -
in the launch in the early afternoon.
Now that the decision was made, I settled down to read a book. There being
no further entertainment, the grown up part of the audience drifted away and
the small boys were chased away and I was left in peace. By noon I noticed
that people were again gathering around the old mast. There were a couple of
fishermen who were mending a net, a cleanly habited shop-keeper and two or
three men from the interior, easily distinguishable by their dress. More
people began to arrive and I wondered whether the unaccustomed sight of a
European had brought them out in the noonday sun. This could scarcely be the
reason because no-one was taking the least interest in me and, in fact, two
or three of the first arrivals had laid themselves down under my tree and
gone to sleep. Suddenly, over the top of the sand dune which separated the
tree from the beach, there appeared two fishermen, their wet loincloths stick
ing to their limbs, dragging a rope on which were strung a number of large
fish. The sleepers woke up and the crowd gathered round the fish. An
auctioneer appeared from nowhere and started to sell the fish. More and more
fishermen appeared over the sand with their catches and the crowd increased
until upwards of a hundred people were present. All was animation, the auc
tioneer shouting the highest bids, sold lots being dragged away to the side,
and sometimes reauctioned as single fish, donkeys arriving in droves to carry
the fish away to villages in the interior and gutters at work cleaning and
filleting for Individual customers. For nearly an hour I enjoyed the spec
tacle and then as suddenly as it had begun, it was all over and only one or
two countrymen remained waiting for their transport to arrive to take away
their purchase. Of the fishmongering which had taken place before ft? eyes
not a trace, not a single head or tail remained. The place was as clean as
it had been before the market began. Who took the refuse away and why I had
not the least idea and no time to ponder over the miracle because it was time
to embark for Tlwl. I
I walked down to the edge of the sea and watched the emb arkation of my staff
and baggage which was being carried out by means of a small and very unsafe
looking dugout canoe. All went well and in due course my turn came and I
stepped into the canoe and was on board without the least tro\4>le. The
engine started immediately for the first and the last time during our journey
and, ordering the helmsman to steer a course half a mile off shore, we set
out for Tiwi and I had time to examine the craft. Many years ago, exactly
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' [133r] (265/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x000042> [accessed 14 August 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.