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'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [173r] (345/498)
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.
- 171 -
to a very large gathering, some carols in Arabic by his Arab assistant
priest. Blind men and women of the Mission to the Blind of London were
brought to the front. We decided not to stop for the procession, timed to
begin at 1.30 p.m. which takes place from the R.C. church through the
Basilica, past the Armenian part and Orthodox Greek to the Holy Crypt. Had
some sandwiches and tea in the hotel and went to the midnight sung Eucharist
in St. George's - back in bed by 1.15 a.m.
Sat. 25th,Christmas Day, 195^-. Went out all day taking coloured photos
of all the places of interest and then down into the old part of the
Jordanian-held part of the old city, the Via Dolorosa, the Wailing Wall,
where there were no Jews of course for they are on the other side of "no-man's
land" dividing the city at this time - down to the Mosque of St. Omar,
originally the site of the Jewish temple.
On Sunday, 26th Dec. Farid Imam took us down to St. Stephen's Gate, without
which Stephen was stoned. Then into the large area in which is the Dome of
the Rd#*k in the sacred 'Haram al Sherif - thirty-four acres of it. Inside
the Dome is the large rock on which Abraham is said to have prepared, at
God's order, to sacrifice his son, Isaac - all very dank and gloomy, but
impressive. Then across the courtyard to the Al Aqsa Mosque, beautifully
airy and clean, into which we were admitted shoeless. The Crusaders, in
1099 and 118? made it into a church, Sultan Salah Al Din restored and
beautified it. There was even a separate aisle for women worshippers.
And so down even unto Jericho where we again visited the site on the Jordan
River where Christ is reputed to have been baptised. Then we visited the
site of the recent French excavations which had revealed the beautiful mosaic
floor of the Ommayad Palace which must have been a reception hall. In a
corner is a special part of the floor roofed over, showing two deer, on
one of which a lion had pounced, beneath an apple-bearing fruit tree, all
in a fine state of preservation as they had lain for centuries under a pro
tective covering of sand. Then we clambered up the hill, beneath the high
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.