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'"NO MEDALS THIS TIME" by Sir Tom Hickinbotham, KCMG, KCVO, CIE, OBE' [139r] (277/336)
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.
137 -
kilt and, holding it high in the air with one hand where it could not get
wet, strode into the water and across like so many animated bronze statues,
the sun glistening on their wet skin as they emerged on the far side. Salem
and the tea arrived and as soon as the kettle was empty we walked down to the
beach and watched the sailors from the dhows filling water skins and loading
them into their long boats and rowing them out to their vessels with a rhyth
mic chant to music provided by a lad in the bows with a skin drum which he
slapped with the fingers of both hands and the heel of one.
From Tiwi to Sur is twenty miles and we took seven and half hours with a
light following breeze. Twice the engine stopped and on each occasion half
an hour was spent by the engineers in probing into its interior economy
before, almost in protest, it spluttered again into activity. It was a mercy
that the sea was calm, otherwise had a strong "shimal’ 1 been blowing, we
should have been in a disagreeable situation with a steep-to lee shore.
There are only two places of interest between Tiwi and Sur. The first of
these is the half-way village of Qalhat, or Qillat, a small place in a valley
guarded by three towers, once a place of considerable importance where in
1507 the Portuguese established a base from which to attack Muscat. Ibn
Battuta visited the place in the first half of the 14th century and described
it as a city with fine markets and a beautiful mosque. Nothing now remains
of its former glory. The second is Senaislah, a curious town built a few
yards from the beach with a rise behind it crowned by the ruins of a castle
which in days gone by protected it from attack by land and sea. During nine
months of the year it is a town of women and children and aged men, all the
able-bodied men and boys being away working in the Suri dhows. It is only
during the three months of the monsoon that it is at all animated, when the
dhows are laid up for their annual overhaul and the men and older lads are
at home.
From Senaislah we could see the flat-roofed houses of the town of Sur which
is built on low-lying ground along the sea shore. It is in fact almost an
island because a khor or creek runs inland to the east of the town which
faces north and when just south of the town turns due west. Sur is divided
into four quarters and each quarter belongs to a separate tribal unit under
its own sheikh, an arrangement which at one time greatly facilitated fight
ing in the town between the rival factions from each quarter. Those days
are now over as the Sultan's Governor of the province, a strong man, has
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' [139r] (277/336), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/13, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100094411639.0x00004e> [accessed 4 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.