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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [154r] (307/336)
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.
152 -
We were in the Slow Mail eteaner of the British India Coopany and anong the
passengers there were a dozen or so pearl merchants taking their purchases
to the Bombay pearl market where report had said prices were rising. Salem
and I would sometimes sit on the deck in the evening and talk and so I came
to realise that not only was he a man of great skill in his business, but
also that he was deeply learned and of pure heart. He was a just and upright
man who would have made an admirable administrator of the law and sometimes
I wondered why he dealt in pearls. His grandfather and his father had been
in the business and so I suppose he had followed automatically in their foot
steps, unwilling to disappoint them. He was considered to have been a lucky
man and for the past few years I knew he had been selective in his buying,
only purchasing the very choisest pearls, the pick of the dive, unlike the
majority of the ordinary dealers who mixed their purchases and bought ungra
ded lots often containing pearls of low grade and colour. These men sorted
the pearls themselves and by spreading their purchases, avoided a serious
loss though they never made spectacular profits. If the demand for one
colour or quality was poor it was probable that enquiries for other grades
would more than offset any loss and generally the season's business showed a
reasonable profit for such merchants. In Salem's case it was different because
he dealt only in first grade rose-pink pearls and for his type of business two
requirements were essential. Firstly, fine judgment and, secondly, good con
tacts. These pearls are costly and an error of judgment could be very serious,
but Salem had both knowledge and contacts and normally would have a particular
customer in view before he made his purchase. However, there was always a
considerable element of risk because sometimes his prosepctive client was not
satisfied and there was no sale and sometimes an event thousands of miles
away over which he had no Influence could affect his business. A Royal wedd
ing or some such occasion would increase the demand for his goods and prices
would rise, but a recession on Wall Street would have the opposite effect.
Like the other merchants who had small lots only, Salem carried his pearls on
his person. Just twenty or thirty beautiful specimens worth probably £30,000
wrapped up in a piece of red cotton cloth tucked away in an old leather wal
let, and like all of us though he travelled first-class he seldom entered
the dining salon, preferring to have his meals out in the open air seated on
a carpet on the deck and waited on by his own servant. One afternoon he was
seated on his carpet on the deck leaning back against the bulkhead. He had
lunched with two of his particular friends and the debris of the meal still
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' [154r] (307/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x00006c> [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.