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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [159r] (317/336)
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.
157 -
It was an amusing life and on the whole I enjoyed myself. For inspection
work I used my own car, a two-seater Chevrolet with a hood and a dickey large
enough for my two orderlies. One of my orderlies was an Arab I had brought
with me from Aden and the other a local Daur. Both were armed with rifles
and should a crisis arise, had plenty of room to use their weapons. In fact,
no crisis arose during my time in Miranshah, which much disappointed my Arab
orderly.
When paying out the Khassadars I used a small Beford bus with room in front
for the driver and one other and the large box of currency, my clerk, and an
escort of six armed men behind. There was no division between the front seat
and those at the back which ran lengthwise and faced each other.
I always carried a shot gun, a useful weapon in an emergency, and if we found
any hill partridges on the road or near it the car was, or bus was, stopped
and I spent a few minutes in pursuit as they fled up the hillside. I was care
ful not to go too far as there was always an element of risk. In fact my suc
cessor was ambushed and killed with some of the escort some few months after I
left, at a spot not many miles from Miranshah where I had frequently spent an
hour or so of an evening shooting partridges with my two orderlies. ' T y unfor
tunate successor was in the bus on his way to pay the Khassadars at a large post
some twenty miles from Miranshah through country which was considered among the
most friendly. The bus, rounding a sharp bend in the road, found the road
blocked with rocks. Before the driver could back away the raiding party, which
had lain concealed on the hillside, opened fire. The escort did th^ir best but
were hampered by being caught in the bus and the raiders (jt. th the
money leaving a shambles behind.
A day or two after my arrival at Miranshah, pay day came round anu >.c and I
set out in the Beford bus to pay the posts from Miranshah to the Razmak Narai.
It was a good opportunity for him to show me the posts and introduce me to the
men and their officers. All went well until we reached the Razmak Narai where
the main road from Bannu to Razmak ascends steeply with numerous hairpin bends
from the Scout Post at Dousalli to the Narai or Pass which guards the eastern
approach to the plain of Razmak with its military camp garrisoned by an
enlarged Brigade Group. At the top of the Narai slightly above the road was the
Khassadars Post, a stone-built single-storey building surrounded by a stone
wall and a double apron barbed wire fence. We left the Bedford on the road and
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' [159r] (317/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x000076> [accessed 15 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.