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'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [140r] (279/498)
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.
- 138 -
in two t' elve-inch pipes to Haifa and Tripoli, the pumping stations along
these lines being titled H. ;:- ; nd T. respectively. The H. line to Haifa was
closed on the outbreak of trouble with Israel and diverted north-west to
Tripoli for export from there. Later, of course, with the vast increase
of production of crude oil in Iraq, these twelve-inch lines were increased,
first by a thirty-inch pipe and then by forty-inch.
I was greatly interested in the good work of the American Mission in Tripoli,
run for the past thirty years by Dr. and Mrs. Bryce and staffed by Christian
doctors and nurses. hey take in anyone into their hospitals, but charge
£2 a day for a private room, plus fees for extras, and 15 /- a day in the
general ward.
I drove out the sixty miles to Homs, past tne picturesquely sited Crusader
Castle ’Crac de Chevalier 1 in the gap where the road runs through the Lebanon
Range. I went up to Homs and saw the enormous water-wheels lifting the
river water some thirty feet into the old Roman aqueducts, irrigating the
fertile fields along the river bank. I continued up to Aleppo where the
very up-to-date American-educated Mayor had one of the cleanest, tidiest
bazaars I have seen in the Middle East, and the town itself of three hundred
thousand inhabitants very prosperous looking with fine stone buildings,
straight, clean streets testifying to the efficiency of the French adminis
tration.
And so home by air to London and on to Blackheath.
We had heard from Kerces house-agents, of a house for sale in Oxted,
Surrey, so we all, Nancy, Granny and I, went down to inspect it. It is
rather on a slope and has a poor, tho* roomy, garage. Discussed matter
with our friend and solicitor. The surveyors report on the house satis
factory
An East India Company trading post.
so we shall probably take it. It has five rooms upstairs, an
attractive entrance hall as big as a room, a nice study and a useful back
kitchen. The garden is about one acre and has a useful greenhouse.
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
- Usage terms
- The copyright status is unknown. Please contact [email protected] with any information you have regarding this item.