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'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [192r] (383/498)
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.
- 190 -
bedrooms but rent Rs. 1,100 per month. Then all round New Delhi there are
new housing estates crowding in on what was the select Lutyen’s city. His
large secretariat, with Parliament Building, is, of course, the same, but
houses everywhere out on the Lodi and Kutub roads - clerks 1 flats, two-
storeyed, as well as nice detached villas.
We went to the Lodi golf club and found it very crowded, mostly Indians
for they have taken up the ’’Sahib Logs” habits in a big v/ay - and the club
and course in very good condition.
Next day Lavender and Bill with the children, Mike and Lee, left by car
for Srinagar, planning to motor some four hundred miles today, put up at a
convenient
dak
System of postal communication used in Moghul India and later by the East India Company.
bungalow on the way and on to Srinagar next day. Nancy and
I took a taxi and explored our old stamping ground in Old Delhi. Offices
in huge blocks going up everywhere. The new India is not content with the
secretariat and ministries we had. Old Delhi - the Cecil and Maidens Hotels,
the old secretariat much the same - but new offices everywhere.
Our taxi driver was a Kashmiri from the Gurez valley, said he regretted
the British departure - said only bunyas filling their stomachs, but people
like himself - he was in the 10th Lancers - much worse off. But speaking
to the people in their own language I found that though they had no ill-
feeling against our long occupation, there was pride in their own indepen
dence and no real desire for our return.
LXX1. TO KASHMIR.
Next day Nancy and I left by Indian Air Lines Dakota for Srinagar.
Got a good view of the Sikh Golden Temple in the centre of a small tank
in the middle of Amritsar. So to Jammu in thirty-five minutes. After brief
halt off we flew towards Srinagar. But a huge black monsoon cloud blew up
k
and obscured the pass - the Bani^al^nine thousand feet, and in the up-current
the plane was thrown about like a bag of paper to the interior concern of
a number of passengers. The pilot thought he was over the Srinagar valley
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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- 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
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