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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [134r] (267/336)
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.
how long no-on© seemed to know, a local builder in Muscat built a thirty foot
sailing boat of solid teak planks with ribs of sound, hard wood known as
"jungli”, all of which had been imported from India. The planks were fastened
to the ribs with flat headed iron nails which, rusting with the passing of
time, diminished in size, and the vessel leaked badly when an enterprising
Hindu merchant purchased her for a song after she had been rotting on the
Matrah beach for three or four years. Her previous owners had bought her
fourth or fifth hand and ran her until her gear just fell to pieces. The
Hindu had the nails replaced with similar ones, but of a larger size, and
after she had been recaulked she was reasonably watertight. In a moment of
never-to-be~repeated enthusiasm, her new owner gave her a coat of blue and
white paint of the cheapest quality available and traces of colour still
clung to her sun-baked sides, grey with age. The poop had been decked over
and provided with a low rail and here sheltered to some extent from the sun
by an old piece of sail which did duty for an awning, was the first-class
accommodation. It was here that I sat in my deckchair on my carpet spread
over the 30 square feet of space and surveyed the scene. I was not alone in
my glory because behind me was the helmsman at the wheel and to one side
Naser, on ray orders, was reclining on the deck and on the other the clerk,
not on my orders, was usurping far more of the space than he had a right to
while the cook, with an expression of complete disgust on his face, had crept
in among us. Beneath us was the only luggage space in the vessel, and the
only access to this hold was through a hatch in the deck under my carpet.
Whenever anyone wanted anything from the hold, which they did every fifteen
minutes, my chair and all the first-class passengers had to move while the
carpet was taken up and the hold opened.
The middle of the launch was the preserve of the engineers and their charge.
It was a dark, well-like place, black with grease from which arose a pale
blue vapour with a stench it's impossible adequately to describe. Forward
of the engine room was another evil-smelling well, extremely small and
cramped, and to make life more difficult and interesting for the second-class
passengers who had sole rights of occupancy, the dugout canoe had been bal
anced across it. In the canoe Saleh, the scent merchant, a seasoned travel
ler, had taken up his quarters which he shared with a few fowls who lay tied
by the legs against the time they would be required for the pot. Beneath in
the murky gloom were two members of the crew and Salem the slave and a fourth
man whose face I could not make out in the darkness of the half-decked bow
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' [134r] (267/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x000044> [accessed 6 April 2025]
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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.