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'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [22r] (43/498)
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.
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It soon became apparent that we would never get to grips with the Kachins
so we concentrated on giving them as much trouble as v/e could by tracking
down their villages and seizing all their goods and chattels and, in rare
cases, capturing so^e of their women and children. e also drove out the
German spies and agitators and at the same time impounded all the merman
traders and businessmen who were operating in Rangoon before the war and had
failed to escape, as some of them had before the outbreak of war. There
is little doubt that this close-knit colony of German traders in Burma knew
before we did of the imminence of the war.
So, with the Military Police detachment in Kachin land and with the help
of friendly Kachin elders in our pay, we appeased the Kachins. Curiously
enough, within a comparatively short space of time we were recruiting Kachins
into the Military Police as a ’Scout Detachment’ and very good work they did.
We later heard that the few German agitators who had originally misled
and enflamed the Kachins managed to get back into China and probably
eventually got home to Germany.
XI. AKYAB.
I returned to my permanent service as Assistant Superintendent of Police
and was posted to Akyab in Arakan (later to become a field of operations
against the Japanese in the Second V/orld War).
XII. A.D.C. TO GOVERNOR OF BURMA.
I was not left in Akyab for long but was transferred to the staff of the
Governor of Burma, Sir Harcourt Butler, uncle of Rab Butler, to relieve a
regular Indian Army officer to return to his regiment for active service.
Whilst with Sir Harcourt I pestered him to be allowed to go off to the
war and this was eventually permitted. I was posted as a Second Lieu
tenant in the 11th Bengal Lancers (Probyn’s Horse) who were then on active
service on the North West Frontier of India, dealing with the rebellious
PATHANS who, of course, had for so many years been at odds either with
the Afghan Government to the west, or British India to the east. The
headquarters of the regiment were in DERA-ISMAIL-KHAN on the right bank of
the Indus R iver. The summer months were a misery for, with the melting
of the snows in the Himalayas, the Indus was flooded to a width of four
miles, which meant that in the heat there was much evaporation so that
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).
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- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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- Reference
- Mss Eur F226/30
- Title
- 'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977'
- Pages
- 2r:248v
- Author
- Todd, Sir Herbert John
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