!['AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [‎20r] (39/498)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000880.0x0002ef/Mss Eur F226_30_0039.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [‎20r] (39/498)")
'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [20r] (39/498)
The record is made up of 1 file (247 folios). It was created in 1976-1978. 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.
X. BURMA.
The outbreak of war in 191^ found me as an Assistant Superintendent of
Police in Burma in what was then entitled the Indian Police Service, which
I entered via an open competitive examination held in London. Having
gained one of the vacancies I was posted with four other successful
competitors to Burma on the princely salary of
Rupees
Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf.
300 a month!
At that time in Burma there was not only the civil police force concerned
with the usual functions of law and order, but a military police force, an
armed force kept in reserve at several strategic centres in Burma, comprising
Sikhs, Gurkhas and Punjabi Mussalmans officered by delegated British officers
of the Indian Army. Soon after war broke out, some of us civil police
officers were transferred to the Military Police to enable the regular
Indian Army officers to be returned to their regiments in India. I,
therefore, found myself transferred to the Military Police in Mandalay,
a force of 2,000 infantry and some 500 mounted Military Police.
About a year before the outbreak of war, there had been some disturbance
in the north of Burma in an area which had not then come under the adminis
tration of the Government of Burma. The KACHIN tribe was a militant tribe
living mostly in a number of secluded villages in the densely forested
jungles of the mountainous north of Burma. They had enslaved the more
docile tribe of SHANS, who lived as peaceful farmers in the plains of
north Burma. On an appeal for protection from these enslaved Shans, the
Government of Burma had sent a force <a>f Military Police who drove back the
Kachins into their hills and released the Snans to continue their peaceful,
peasant life.
Soon after the outbreak of the first Great War, some German infiltrators
had arranged to contact the Kachins and persuaded them that the British
Government was so occupied with the war that now was their opportunity to
descend to the plains and recover their Shan slaves.
This was where we in the Mandalay Military Police came into the picture.
There was a battalion of Military Police in MYITKYINA, some 100 miles north
of where the fracas was taking place of the Kachins trying to recover their
Shan slaves, but that battalion was responsible for maintaining peace on
the northern frontier of Burma and could not spare troops to go south and
About this item
- Content
Memoirs of Sir Herbert Todd (1893-1985) of 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. , later of the Iraq Petroleum Company. Written during the years 1976-78, the memoirs begin by recounting Todd's childhood on his family's farm in Kent, his education and entrance into the Home Civil Service in 1912, and his entrance into 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. in 1913. Roughly half of the memoirs (ff 10-137) covers Todd's career up to 1947, which can be summarised as follows:
- Posted to the Indian Police, Burma [Myanmar], 1913-17 (ff 10-22)
- Served in the 11th Bengal Lancers (Probyn's Horse), Indian Army, in Mesopotamia [Iraq], 1917-19 (ff 22-24)
- Remained in Baghdad as Assistant Commissioner of Police, Baghdad East Subdivision, 1919-20 (ff 25-31)
- Transferred to 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. , holding positions in Baluchistan, 1921; Gilgit, 1927; Quetta, 1931; Bharatpur, 1936-39 (ff 31-67)
- Served in the Home Guard during extended leave (1939-40), first in Canfield, Essex, and later in Blackheath, London (ff 68-72), followed by a spell as an air warden while awaiting re-posting to India (ff 72-78)
- First attempt at passage to India abandoned when the ship he was travelling on, SS Simla , was torpedoed, September 1940 (ff 79-88)
- Returned to India, holding positions at Udaipur, 1940 (ff 93-97); Baluchistan, 1941 (ff 97-101); Cochin [Kochi] and Travancore, 1943 (ff 101-111); and Calcutta [Kolkata] and the Eastern States, 1944-47 (ff 111-134)
- Returned to London on leave, April 1947; career brought to an abrupt end in June 1947 with the announcement of the handing over of power and Indian independence (ff 135-137).
The last hundred or so folios relate to Todd's employment in the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), 1948-59 (ff 138-227), and his subsequent retirement in Oxted, Surrey, 1959-78 (ff 227-248). As Chief Representative of the IPC, Todd and his wife spent much of their time in Baghdad. The memoirs document Todd's relations with prominent Iraqi politicians, diplomats, and visiting British MPs, as well as Todd's visits to Beirut, Damascus, Palestine, Jordan, Kuwait, Persia [Iran] and the United States. Also included are Todd's thoughts on the Suez Crisis and the 1958 revolution in Iraq (Todd was holidaying in Austria at the time and never returned to Baghdad).
Aside from his career, Todd writes about his hobbies (polo and hunting) and comments on UK and world events, such as the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the death of Winston Churchill, and the first moon landing in July 1969; he also mentions in passing meeting Professor Max Mallowan and Agatha Christie at the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud (Iraq) in April 1955.
The text is typewritten with annotations and crossings out in pencil and ink. It includes some offensive terms and language in its descriptions of members of colonised populations.
- Extent and format
- 1 file (247 folios)
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 249; 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. The file also contains an original printed foliation sequence. It should be noted that number 13 in the original foliation sequence is missing (in between folios 14 and 15).
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
Use and share this item
- Share this item
'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [20r] (39/498), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/30, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100096527773.0x000028> [accessed 26 June 2026]
https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100096527773.0x000028
Copy and paste the code below into your web page where you would like to embed the image.
<meta charset="utf-8"><a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100096527773.0x000028">'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [‎20r] (39/498)</a> <a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100096527773.0x000028"> <img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000880.0x0002ef/Mss Eur F226_30_0039.jp2/full/!280,240/0/default.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
This record has a IIIF manifest available as follows. If you have a compatible viewer you can drag the icon to load it.https://www.qdl.qa/en/iiif/81055/vdc_100000000880.0x0002ef/manifestOpen in Universal viewerOpen in Mirador viewerMore options for embedding images
Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F226/30
- Title
- 'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977'
- Pages
- 2r:248v
- Author
- Todd, Sir Herbert John
- Usage terms
- The copyright status is unknown. Please contact [email protected] with any information you have regarding this item.