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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [136r] (271/336)
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.
134
shore. I was sceptical of the truth of this statement, but the presence of
some large ocean-going dhows anchored close in-shore appeared to indicate
that there was some truth in it because, for the life of me, I could not
imagine what they could be doing there unless they had called in for water.
I decided to land and see for myself. Tiwi itself was clearly visible just
over a mile away to the east of the village so I ordered the canoe to be
put into the water and told the cleric to take the launch over to Tiwi as
soon as I had landed and make arrangements for lodgings for the night. I
took Naser with me and one of the crew to paddle the canoe and take it back
to the launch.
We landed on the white sand and I walked slowly up the steep beach and over
the shingle at the top and stopped in sheer amazement at the sight which met
my eyes. To my right and left the sides of the gorge rose sheer for six
hundred feet, at their foot were groves of green date palms and at my very
feet and stretching ri^it up the valley was green grass the like of which I
had not seen since I left England. Between the grass and the cliff to my
right was a lake of crystal clear fresh water bordered by reeds in which
little fish swam about in the most friendly fashion. They might hav been
tame fish in a tank expecting to be fed. Cows grazed on the park-like land
scape and women washed clothes in the stream which ran down the centre of
the valley and fed the lake. We bought fresh sweet limes from an old man
who told me that both the yellow and red variety of banana grew further up
the gorge. As it was dusk and night was falling fast, further exploration
would have to be put off to the next day so, with one last look at this
almost incredible spectacle, Naser and I climbed the steep path out of the
valley up to the guardian tower of the village, a rather dilapidated stone
affair. We walked through the village and along the top of a low cliff and
were soaked to the skin with perspiration before we had gone a hundred yards.
It was very hot and very humid and Tiwi never seemed to come any closer in
that tiresome way places have when one is anxious to arrive. However,
eventually, we did arrive and walked along the Tiwi beach past comparatively
large houses and a rather poor mosque. The launch had arrived and the clerk
had obtained accommodation in a very nice house and the kit was being brought
ashore by the crew and my men. I shook hands with one or two notables who
had collected at the entrance to the house and mounted to the roof by a mud
staircase. There I found my carpet had been spread on a raised part of the
roof and my camp-bed had been set up and was greeted with the news that the
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' [136r] (271/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x000048> [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.