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'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [43r] (85/498)
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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XXVIII. GILGIT 1927-31.
In 1927, after home leave, I was posted to Gilgit, in Kashmir as Palitical
Agent and so began what I look back on as the best period of my Indian
Political Department career, and I held on to the post for four years,
1927-1931.
N, Heather and Lavender and I went out by long sea route - long before the
d^ys of flying out to India - to Karachi and so by train up to Rav/al Pindi.
e took out a Yorkshire girl, Miss Hardie, as Nanny to the children.
Luckily she was a country girl so had no qualms of the pony riding fourteen-
day journey from Srinagar to Gilgit. we stayed a few days in the annexe
bungalow of the British
Residency
An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India.
in Srinagar to enable us to collect our
gear and ponies for the bridle-track journey to Gilgit. We learned that we
had to take up grocery stores for twelve months as Gilgit was cut off from
Srinagar and Kashmir by the snows on the passes. My predecessor in Gil?it
met us in Srinagar so we were able to take over his ponies and I bought all
his grocery stores en bloc which he had left in Gilgit. Most of these stores
he had taken over from his predecessor and when we got to Gilgit we found
a 0 l n tins of food which must have been handed over back for many
years and which N weeded out so that when we came to hand over at least the
dry stores would not be stale.
V/e sent the ponies off by rGDad to Bandipur at the foot of the hills where
the bridle-track started northwards. We were able to do the journey by house
boat over the Wular Lake to Bandipur.
Tne Kashmir valley is some 5,000 feet above sea level and Gilgit is about
the same, but intervening is the 13,500 feet Burzil Pass
- *
e halted a few nights at Bandipur and then started our march.V/e adults
rode p©nies and the two children were carried by a gang of
coolies
A term used to describe labourers from a number of Asian countries, now considered derogatory.
in
litters (ctiuwrLLs) strung from a pole which the
coolies
A term used to describe labourers from a number of Asian countries, now considered derogatory.
shouldered.
The first day f s journey was a short one of some ten miles up the hill
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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