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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [105r] (209/336)
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.
103 -
->c\
but it was holiday time and to his joy he had been allowed to coi*ie with us.
Naturally when old friends meet they talk of the tiroes f;oo< } nnd bad that
they have spent together and laugh at adventures and misadventures, which,
so often, time has turned from tragedy to comedy. When we had done with ’’the
good old days” I pressed Salem Naser to toll us something of kir. adventures
since last he and I had met. I knew that finding it difficult to settle down
to a monotonous job in the Colony, as tribesmen so often do, and still being
young and adventurous, he had left Aden shortly after I retiree? and had trav
elled in Saudi Arabia and the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
where, line all rolling stones, he
had gathered little moss but a great deal of polish. Quick tenpered but quick
to laugh, with a strong sense cf humour, he got into and out of scrapes which
would never have happened to a lees volatile individual.
One evening Salem was in particularly good form as he sat cross-legged in
front of. me between the olaer Naser and the younger Mohaiumed and illustrated
hiu roiiiarks with quick expressive movements of his hands, laughter in his
eyes and often or. his lips. This is soBiething of what he told us that
evening:- .
“When I left Aden I went to Saudi Arabia because I had friends from my tribe
in Jedda who,when thoy came home on leave, always seemed to be very well off
and it looked as if it was easy to make money in Saudi Arabia. I had saved a
little money and I travelled by road from Aden up to Taia in the Yemen and
then oown to Uodeidah on the Red Sea shore and so along the coast road north
through Gizan and Gunfeidah to Jedda. I went into partnership in Jec.da with
a friend and with his money and what I had brought with no, we bought a taxi
which I drove. You would not have known me dressed as T was in Saudi
Arabian clothes with the long white shirt down to tho ground under which I
wore the usual short pants and on my head a black and white check hendcloth
and a brown woollen cloak which we would call a ”bisht r '. I was very smart
and X did very well, especially during the Pilgrimage season rhen driving the
pilgrims up and down the road between Jedda and Mecca. It*s a yood road
built by the Saudi Arabian Government and one can drive very fast, but in
places it is dangerous and to prevent too many accidents the Saudi police
have imposed a speed limit on the road which normally they do not trouble to
enforce, but during the Pilgrimage they are very strict. At that time there
are so many cars on the road that even normally safe stretches become danger
ous. The Pilgrimage does not last long and it is the harvest of the taxi
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' [105r] (209/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x00000a> [accessed 10 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.