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'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [56r] (111/498)
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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- 54 -
such cases as were beyond his powers, such as divorce of British Nationals,
granting of probate and bankruptcy. But outside the city and cantonment of
Quetta I tried cases by jirga under the Frontier Crimes Regulations. The
district of the Quetta
Agency
An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent.
included some two hundred miles of frontier
with Afghanistan and that frontier frequently gave cause for concern.
Raiding bands of Afghans used to make armed incursions into the
Agency
An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent.
,
looti ig and pillaging, and had to be chased out by my ’levies’. The regular
police functioning under the Indian Police Act were only allowed to function
in the city, cantonment and railway areas. Outside, in the tribal areas,
I had an irregular mounted force called ‘’Levies" recruited from the tribes.
The levies preserved law and order in the tribal areas.
The railway line up from India ran through Quetta and out to the
Afghanistan border at Chaman which was on the way to Kandahar.
It was a fairly exacting job and one’s regular office work was frequently
interrupted by demands for immediate attention of affairs in the city or
cantonment. Such an incident was a case when I was called out by my
Superintendent of the regular police to a murder which had taken place
in the cantonment. A British army major and his wife had been found by their
servants in the morning hacked to death in their beds. The weapon used was
*
a kitchen meat chopper. It was a ghastly sight. The husband had been
killed as he lay in bed but the wife had struggled out and was lying by her
bedside.
Suspicion fell on one of the servants and, to my surprise, I found he v/as
a man from Gilgit so I was able to question him in his own language - Shina.
He finally confessed and told me a rather pathetic story. He said the
British major had been a cruel, overbearing master who was always complaining
of his work and had frequently beaten him. He brooded over this ill-
treatment and finally could stand it no longer. He waited one night until
he was sure husband and wife were asleep, then crept into the bedroom 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
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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
- Usage terms
- The copyright status is unknown. Please contact [email protected] with any information you have regarding this item.