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'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [179r] (357/498)
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.
- 177 -
their fresh spring foliage. We went up the steep cliffed gorge of the Zab
river and along the Hamilton road where the enterprising young sapper Captain
had built a spectacular road cut out of the cliffside by the river bank with
the idea that the Russian armies which, in early 1917, were pressing down
through Persia with the object of linking up with the right flank of the
advancing British army pushing the Turks back in Mesopotamia. As it happened
the Bolshevik rebellion broke out and the pro Allies Russian army had to
withdraw, a rabble, to Russia. We drove on up t,ne valley. -ve drove in to
the Rov/anduz village, a busy little market place. Then on up over the
Barzarin Pass, scrub oak on the hillsides, up past a frontier police post
at Rayat a steep climb for four or five miles to a little stone Rest House
in an open plateau and so up to the
watershed
The boundary between adjacent drainage basins.
and the frontier of Iraq and
Persia. There was still snow on the hilltops and a very cold wind. The
country very like on the road to Gilgit but without pines, tho f there was
some re-afforestation going on behind Haji Amran. Quite a lot of wild
flowers - pink primulas and fritallaria, kingcups and tulips. We have to
cook our own dinner on a charcoal fire - scrambled eggs and a stew of bully
beef, beans and onions - jolly good too.
Off next day past Rayat, Barsarin Pass and gorge, out on to the plateau
of Rowanduz. Then road turned off right into a river gorge and up a side
stream out into a pretty valley over Spillak Pass down into a lovely flower-
covered Haric valley, and up again to a narrow pass and down to Chaklawa,
where we went round and round the poplar tree hidden village, looking for
a lunch picnic place. Two men had caged chikor (hill partridge) to sell.
We saw some chikor on the road. So to Salahuddin and down the winding hill
road to the plain of Erbil to the railway rest house. That night, at 3 a.m.
there was an uproar next door. Transpired that three thieves had crept
into the room next door where two Englishmen were sleeping. One woke up
and shouted, whereupon the thieves fled. I went out and fcuund they had got
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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