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'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [64r] (127/498)
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.
- 62 -
the flood water for when the water eventually dried up in the autumn it
left a nice, enriched silt on the fields which then grew good crops of wheat,
millet, beans, etc.
But when the dammed up fields were full of water it attracted the migrating
geese, duck and teal on their way south from their breeding grounds in
Central Asia. The Bharatpur State authorities - especially when my friend,
Cyril Hancock, was Diwan (Prime Minister) - used to organise duck shoots in
which up to fifty guns participated. One year I was particularly fortunate.
Lord Linlithgow, the Viceroy, was a very keen shot and he and some of his
staff came down in the Viceroy*s special train and participated in the shoot.
He was given the best , butt* in the centre of the , Ghanna*, as the shooting
area was called, and I took up a butt some two hundred yards to his rear.
At the sound of a bugle the first shot was fired and the birds flew up in
a cloud. I was in a *hide* on a small mound and had some three or four
coolies
A term used to describe labourers from a number of Asian countries, now considered derogatory.
in the water round about me ready to pick up the birds I shot. I
remember we used to take out bottles of country liquor for these
coolies
A term used to describe labourers from a number of Asian countries, now considered derogatory.
as, in spite of the hot sun - if it was not cloudy - they soon got cold in
the water and the strong country liquor was very welcome. The Viceroy had
two guns and his v a let to load for him. My gun soon got very hot and I had
to dip it in the water when it got too hot to hold. Nancy was with me with
a writing-pad and as I fired, I would call out if I had killed a bird. She
put down strokes up to ten, and so on. The geese soon sheared off and flew
far away so one tried to shoot geese first of all with No. A- shot and then,
as they disappeared, No. 6 shot for the wheeling duck and teal. I had fifty
birds down in the first quarter of an hour, and when the cease fire bugle
sounded at lunch time I had bagged nearly two hundred and fifty birds.
We then adjourned to the State Club House for lunch. The Viceroy and his
daughter came first to our bungalow to wash and brush up and enjoy a drink.
The Viceroy was very enthusiastic as he had shot some one hundred and
eighty birds.
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
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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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- The copyright status is unknown. Please contact [email protected] with any information you have regarding this item.