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'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [117r] (233/498)
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.
- 115 -
Visited Dospalla State, run most efficiently by a very nice
Raja
King
who
displays his institutions with great pride. Then on to small State of Ranpur
where one of my predecessors, intervening in a rising against the
Raja
King
, was
shot dead by the mob. It was a poor litHrle village to be the scene of such
a tragedy. Now this State is administered by a Yuvrani, well educated and
would be smart. But she was married young to a syphilitic Yuvraj and con
tracted the disease from him and bore a child with congenital syphilis. When
will Women’s Lib come to India?
I went by plane to Delhi to attend the Viceroy’s utht ttmfr con
ference of all the Provincial Governors and Residents of India on matters of
common interest, but particularly about the rice problem. Back to Calcutta
and Hastings House. The Calcutta airport was at Dum Dum (hence the name of
the murderous dumdum bullet which was disallowed by international agreement
as it split into pieces on impact and inflicted terrible wounds).
By train to Nandgaon in my own special carriage which was very comfortable.
The head of the State was a Rani, commonly named ’’Cissy”, a very charming
and pretty young lady. Her son was a minor so she vtiS regent. Went over the
B.N. Textiles Mills, the only cotton mill in India making mosquito-nets which,
of course, Were in wide use all over India, so & very profitable concern.
The mill had a children’s creche where the women mill workers could leave
their children - all very modern!
Sunday, 1st April, 194-5 I trained to Khairagarh State where I was met by
the Ruler with a carriage and pair and red-coated outriders. VVfe drove through
the bazaar and up through the neat civil lines where I inspected a "Guard of
Honour", was garlanded and offered "itr and pan". Next day I opened the new
Lady Linlithgow Hospital.
All this "pomp and circumstance" of the Indian States must inevitably go
when we British finally leave India. The new India of Nehru and his daughter
Indira will Jvnock all the paraphernalia on the head and amalgamate the whole
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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