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'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [103r] (205/498)
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.
101 -
the Prime Minister of Madras and sat on the Viceroy’s Council. I had much
business with him and got to like him very much. We were very taken with
the many flowering trees, particularly the Gul Mohur Lagera^ra^neas and
rain trees. My car arrived at last from Ouetta which made us more independent
as, for the first few days, we had depended on State ccu^s.
The sea bathing at Kovalam Bay was very pleasant in th<xt rather tepid
climate. We played tennis by arc light at the Maharani’s Palace which was
fun when one had got used to it.
.1 had under my political supervision not only the States of Cochin and
a
Travancore, but a smaller State of Puducottp, which entailed my going by
train up out of the tropical vegetation of the fAalabar Coast over the ghats
into the much hotter country of Madras, via Trichinopoly, noted for its
excellent cigars. This small state had a British administrator, Sir R.T.
The April, 19^3, temperature there rose to 104° Whilst it was only 80°at
Trivandrum. The country was altogether different, flat, sandy, much surface
I
erosion by monsoon rains, whereas the jungles of Travancore and Cochin
absorbed the rain.
We went by car up through attractive tea-gardens to Munnar, some
5,u00 feet a.s.l. where we lived in a State bungalow on a pretty jungle-clad
hillside. The tea-gardens up there average one thousand acres, with a
manager in the centre of each with a very nice bungalow. There was a British
Club and a small race-course. The usual round of soci,;l life prevailed.
On one occasion Nancy and I motored down through tea-gardens and lower down
0
coffee-gardens to the railway station, and so up to ^otycamund, the busy
hill station to which many officials from Madras and Malabar resorted for
the hot weather. The usual social club and private dinner party society
prevai led.
hunt with hounds brought out from England
pink coats and all!! To us who had come out from battle-scarred London
this normal social life, as if there was no war, seemed all so fantastically
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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- The copyright status is unknown. Please contact [email protected] with any information you have regarding this item.