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'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [172r] (343/498)
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.
- 170 -
irritating four security checks at the frontier with Jordan. Beyond the
Jordan frontier we turned right to Irbid on high ground and so on, due west,
to drop down into the Jordan valley where we joined an excellent tarmac road
down the eastern edge of the very broad Jordan valley. Here well-cultivated
and irrigated, some five miles wide across to the mountains of Moab - sixty-
five miles of it south skirting uericho to the Allenby Bridge over the narrow
twenty-five yards river Jordan, visiting the spot where legend says Jesus
was baptised. We drove down to the Dead Sea again and saw what, in summer,
is quite a lido!!. And so up the twenty-five miles to Jerusalem from 1,300 ft.
below sea level of the Dead Sea to the 2,000 odd feet a.s.l. of Jerusalem.
Found the hotel A1 Zahra, and our old friend and guide Farid Imam waiting
for us. Ramshackle old hotel of an Indian
dak
System of postal communication used in Moghul India and later by the East India Company.
bungalow standard. An
amazing number of young American students in jeans and shirt cramming the
small dining-room, and another crowd of them outside waiting to get in. They
always seem to finish their meal with tea - and toothpicks!
Hard beds and pillows, but we managed to sleep well. Wake up to find
it raining. Go off to Bethlehem, but so foggy all cars had lights on -
unique weather. Quite tricky driving the steepish ups and downs and narrow
turns of the Bethlehem road. Our driver, Sayed Mannaf, accustomed only to
the eternal, flat deserts of Iraq, rather dazed and, eventually, I took over
the driving. At Bethlehem the fog cleared. We went over the Church of the
Nativity again. Hordes of pestering children with collecting boxes - or
without - but just begging - horrible spectacle. Back to Bethany and Church
of Mary and Martha and brother Lazarus. P.M. we visited the Anglican
Cathedral of St. George, built around 1889.
Back to the hotel. We couldnH get any dinner because of queue of
American G.I. type crowd of thrusters, so at 8.30 p.m. off with Farid Imam
to Bethlehem. We went inside courtyard, above the Basilica, where the Anglican
Bishop Stewart conducted a simple service of prayer and carols for Xmas Eve
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.