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'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [29r] (57/498)
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.
- 27 -
whereupon I pulled a string which released the *soda water bottle’ sized
bomb. I saw it falling and exploding but it was a long way from the fleeing
tribe! ./hat a difference from this very amateurish bombing was the expert
and accurate bombing of the 1939-^5 war.
We flew on to Basra leaving the rest of the squadron to drop more bombs.
i
In Basra I had only to wait a day until my fiancee arrived on the regular
run of the steamer from Karachi. We then had to travel up the Tigris by
flat-bottomed boat which, by a curious coincident, was a *P f boat of the
Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, Rangoon, which my fiancee had christened the year
before!
It was a slow business winding up the Tigris, often seeming to turn back
wards on itself,it was so meandering. Then we had to pull into the bank and
tie up from time to time to allow a down—stream boat to pass: down-stream
traffic, of course, having the right of way. It took us seven days to reach
Kut-al-Amarah from where there was a railway up to Baghdad. It was only the
following year that the railway line was built from Baghdad to Basra along
the Euphrates line.
/
On arrival at Baghdad, my fiancee was put up by Colonel and Mrs. Prescott,
whose billet was next to mine on the banks of the Tigris.
Next day I was busy with the military Chaplain at the improvised church in
the Baghdad barracks whilst my fiancee was busy transferring to my house her
things, plus some furniture I had picked up from the enemy trading confisca
tions and some she had brought over from India.
On my return to my billet it was to discover, to my dismay, that my fiancee
was lying on our bed^to-be, flushed and with a high temperature. We summoned
the military doctor and he diagnosed ’flu. The widespread ’flu epidemic
of 1918/19 was then in full force!. My fiancee was feeling rather low
amongst all these strangers and pleaded for ns to be married forthwith in
the bedroom as she was! I felt that it would be better if we could be married
as I would then be able to look after her. So we summoned the Chaplain back
from the church and were married, with my-wife-to-be in my bed! The Prescotts
came in as witnesses as also did Sir Arnold Wilson, the High Commissioner
and several other friends. Jack Taylor of the 11th Lancers flew down from
Mosul to be my best man. After the marriage I had to go next door to the
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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- 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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