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'AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR HERBERT TODD, C.I.E. 1893-1977' [233r] (465/498)
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.
- 231 -
huge 'bodega* or warehouses, full of huge wooden casks of sherry of all kinds
and had the significance of the names explained, viz. 'fino' amontillado,
olorasa, manzanilla^and brandy — some ten to twelve million litres warehoused
there. Saw the bottling and labelling plant. Went into the cobwebby office
where Gabriel Osborne received us. Spanish now but the grandson of the
Osborne who came out here from Exeter. Now you see the name 'Osborne*
advertised all over the country. Gave us a glass of good sherry and as we
left each a half bottle of sherry and two miniature bottles of brandy and
sherry - all very pleasant. We left after lunch and did forty-one miles
the first hour and so on to Gibraltar with no trouble at La Linea as we
crossed the frontier. We had done one thousand, eight hundred and ninety
miles in all. And so to the airport where we handed over the car which had
done us so well.
At the airport they hardly troubled to weigh our baggage so all our qualms
of the pottery, etc. we had bought were unnecessary. Airborne at 8.50 p.m.
and on to London in four hours. Mr. Aspinall who drove us up a fortnight
ago was there with our Rover 90 . I drove to Oxted under the hour - and we
crept quietly into bed by 1.40 a.m.
6 h d a pair, Mr# and Mrs. x^squith, living in and looking after the house
and ettle wnilst we were away. .v'hat a rapturous welcome Nettle gave us.
How good English toast, egge and bacon, pork chops, parsnips, leeks, tasted
after the insipid stuff we have had.
These days I am playing golf with several partners of my standard, Noel
King, ex Malay Civil Service, Brand, ex Merchant Navy captain, Farrant a
mineral engineer and then .^lec weredith with whom X became a regular partner.
With Bill and Lavender in India we have care of the children, Mike and Lee
and Heather's son, Graham. The latter went to Pangbourne Nautical College
but meanwhile is at a school in Crawley Down.
At Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ meeting, after long and heated debate,
Dr. Voerwerd of South Africa decided to withdraw his application to continue
in the Commonwealth when S. Africa becomes a republic in deference to, or
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.