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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [49r] (97/336)
The record is made up of 1 volume (168 folios). It was created in 1982?. 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.
(H
- 47 -
On this stretch of the journey the map was more inaccurate than it had been
before and two or three times when the track just petered out we lost our
way and wasted a lot of time before we got back on the right road.
The streets of the suburbs of Teheran were dull in the extreme, and the
more important thoroughfares nothing to boast about. Most of the larger
roads were lined with high mud walls over the tops of which appeared tall
trees with here and there an entrance gate almost invariably closed so that
I had an impression of a city of prisons. The water supply for the gardens
behind the walls often ran along the side of the road, and it was a not un
common sight to see a soldier or even occasionally an officer in uniform,
squat down and wash his face and hands. I noticed on my early morning walks
that the cadets at the Military College made a practice of washing at the
iide tho roud on their way from their lodgings to the parade ground.
Very understandable if their sanitary arrangements were similar to those at
the "Grand Hotel" where Bill and I stayed. They were past description, as
were the beds which had knobbly mattresses spread on wooden slats. The
noise on our first night in the hotel was appalling, occasioned by a party
of Russians in black knee boots and baggy trousers who had decided to cele
brate in the room next to ours, and having strong constitutions it was well
past midnight before the alcohol they were consuming rendered them incapable
of further singing and stamping and I fell asleep and had a nightmare during
which I must have made some sudden movement which was too much for the bed.
The head and foot boards fell outwards and, with an infernal clatter, the
wooden slats and I fell on the floor. Bill woke in alarm but was unhelpful
and seemed to think it was my fault and that I had done it intentionally. I
was too tired to struggle with the bed so I pushed the collection of short
and long pieces of wood to one side and spent the night on the floor which
was no harder than the bed had been and had the advantage of being even.
The one good point about the hotel was that caviare was far cheaper than but
ter, but alas I was too young to appreciate properly that truly delectable
foodstuff. Otherwise the least said about Teheran and the "Grand Hotel" the
better. We were there for three days and after I had paid several visits to
the really magnificant covered markets with their enchanting tile work, I was
frankly bored and very glad to leave. I was not to visit the place again for
twenty-five years, by which time it had grown out of all recognition except
for the British Embassy where the only change was that it was then an
Embassy and in 1927 it had been but a Legation. In 1942 the architecture of
About this item
- Content
This volume is a set of typewritten memoirs by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, a retired officer of the British Indian Army and 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. . Hickinbotham held various positions in India and in the Middle East, and these memoirs recount stories from his time in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Quetta, Persia [Iran], Aden, Audhali, Bahrain and North Waziristan.
The memoirs were most likely completed in 1982-83; they cover the period 1927-1982, although most of the chapters relate to events from the 1930s and 1940s.
Hickinbotham writes not only about his official duties but also about various trips taken during periods of leave. Below is a list of the chapters, with a short summary of each:
- 'No Medals This Time' (ff 3-6) – details of an incident in Kuwait involving a dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. that caught fire off the foreshore at Shuwaik [Ash Shuwaykh]
- 'The Silver Coin' (ff 7-10) – thoughts on the use of the Maria Theresa thaler in Arabia
- 'The Golden Dagger' (ff 11-36) – an account of Hickinbotham's unofficial visit to Riyadh to meet Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] in May 1942
- 'The Brass Pencase' (ff 37-53) – memories of a journey undertaken from Quetta to Europe via north Persia in 1927, travelling in a Fiat Tourer with Colonel T Nisbet (also referred to as the 'purple emperor'), on what Hickinbotham claims to have been the first trip taken by car from India to the Mediterranean
- 'The Bronze Boy' (ff 54-72) – reminiscences of weekends spent in 'Little Aden' (a rocky peninsula seven miles west of Aden), in 1938, and a later visit, in December 1961
- 'The Silver Letter Case' (ff 73-118) – details of a ten-day trip on the Audhali plateau in the summer of 1938, and a return visit, in December 1960 (the chapter ends with remarks on the situation in Yemen generally from the late sixties to the time of writing, i.e. 1982)
- 'The Agate Ring' (ff 119-144) – memories of travelling in Oman during the summer of 1940 and how this compared with Hickinbotham's last visit to the country in 1980
- 'The Pearl Tie Pin' (ff 145-151) – thoughts and anecdotes on the pearl trade in Bahrain
- 'A Point of View' (ff 152-157) – a story told to Hickinbotham, possibly fictional, of a pearl trader in the Gulf who lost his fortune and livelihood, and eventually his sanity
- 'Snakes Alive!!' (ff 158-161) – an account of a near-fatal encounter with a krite [krait] in Waziristan
- 'The Queen's Visit' (ff 162-168) – memories of the Queen's visit to the Aden Protectorate in 1954, where Hickinbotham was serving as Governor.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (168 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume contains an index of chapter headings on folio 2, which includes some handwritten corrections and annotations.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 168; 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. An additional mixed foliation/pagination sequence is also present in parallel between ff 3-168.
Condition: The original plastic comb binding ring has been replaced with a wider one to facilitate flat opening of the volume. Polyester film covers have been added to protect the first and last folios.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [49r] (97/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411638.0x000062> [accessed 27 June 2026]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F226/13
- Title
- '"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE'
- Pages
- 1r:168v
- Author
- Hickinbotham, Sir Tom
- Usage terms
- The copyright status is unknown. Please contact [email protected] with any information you have regarding this item.