Travels in the Trucial States

I have travelled all over the world, mostly in later years of my life, but the most fascinating of all my travels were in The Trucial States - now the United Arab Emirates.

The whole country except a few mud towns such as Dubai and Sharjah was empty desert. There were Bedouin living a roving existence who one occasionally came across, but had absolutely no connection with. The Bedouin women dressed in long black robes with black head-cover and a black mask which covered the forehead and nose, with a split for the eyes.

Jill must have been a great puzzle to them, unmasked and dressed in a cotton frock. They had never seen anything like it and did not know what to believe. This was in the late fifties, early sixties. Oil had just been discovered and the coast was beginning to be known but was still quite primitive. The coast between Dubai and where Jill and Robin lived, near Ras al-Khaimah was absolutely perfect - dunes and sandy beaches that stretched 100 miles of glorious seaside and completely empty.

Jill and Robin's house was sent out for them by the Foreign Office and was twelve miles from the nearest house. Close by and in other regions Robin grew luscious vegetables and flowers but elsewhere, for hundreds of miles there was not a blade of grass to be seen except in the very few rather sparse oasis's.

Con , a very great friend and Jill's Godmother, suggested we should go out to stay with Jill and Robin and paid all our expenses, also for a week in Beirut on our way home. She took a case of champagne with us as a present.

I should fill in the background a bit. Robin was employed by the Foreign Office. He had suggested to them that he should go out there and grow vegetables and flowers for Abu Dabi. He lived first in a wooden crate in complete isolation. Later the Foreign Office provided him with a wooden house which was very comfortable. He came home on leave, met Jill, who was 17 ½ and proposed to her. He did a trip with her and the Consul's wife as chaperone, just so that Jill was prepared for the desert isolation. He gave a party at which his far off friends drove hundreds of miles to attend. He had an aeroplane fly 100 miles from Dubai to drop a linen bag in which was Jill's engagement present, a rope of real pearls.

They were married when they returned to England and sent off to their desert home afterwards. What a life for an 18 year old girl to go to, but she settled down surprisingly well.

The Bedouin were isolated in hundreds of miles of desert and had never met Europeans, except possibly on rare visits to Dubai and found it very difficult to understand this young woman who accompanied Robin, who, he told them, was his wife!

When we went to stay they managed to accept that I was Jill's Mother. Con was a puzzle and they decided, tho' being told otherwise, that she was Robin's Mother. Jill and Robin met us in Sharjah.

We were invited to a meal with Arabs 70 miles away at the end of Ramadan. We had the evening meal sitting on the sand in a tent. It was brought in on a huge dish and we rolled a mouthful with the RIGHT hand and popped it in. There were several tins of Coca Cola to drink. Robin noticed I was not too good at sitting on the ground and got me a chair from somewhere.

It was very dark when we set off for the 70 miles back. Robin said cheerily to Ted 'Well you know the way' and disappeared at great speed, while Ted followed comfortably at his speed.

We got to a spot where the track went three ways. We considered the right direction and took the middle track. We heard a dog bark (in the middle of nowhere?). After a bit Ted turned round as we felt we were on the wrong track and took another one that soon petered out and we went back and took the third. Down below us on the left we saw a faint light. Ted stopped. 'People' he said and at that moment we found we were surrounded by 8 Arabs with rifles pointed at the car.

Ted and the Arabs talked for a considerable time. Ted's Sudanese Arabic was almost a foreign language to them. Con said, in my ear 'Do you think this is a Fate Worse Than Death'!

Suddenly all the Arabs jumped in the back of the truck and knocked on the back window for Ted to drive on. We drove several miles, when they knocked for us to stop and all the Arabs jumped out. We had not got a clue why we were being brought to a halt. Actually all 8 Arabs shook hands with all three of us and moved away. There in the distance was Robin's little house!

Robin and Jill were pretty pleased to see us and when they heard the tale were even more so. Robin indicated that really anything could have happened.

They had two Bedu servants who were horrified to hear the story. Those men, according to the them were not Arabs, they were Djins and the dog was a Werewolf! We were extremely lucky to be alive. Anything, according to the Bedu, which was unusual in the desert was caused by Djins and for days they looked at us strangely and expected the worst to happen. A bad pain in the stomach was a Djin and I think when the odd Arab train caught sight of Con, Jill and me, we must have been Djins too.

One day we were having a picnic by a small oasis of two or three palm trees. A Bedu train of about 60 Arabs passed us. NONE of them looked at us. They had a camel which had obviously just given birth with its baby hung with bands of cloth at its side. I got my camera out. Robin hastily pushed it out of the way. He called out and asked if we might take a photograph. Out came the rifles and we did not take the photo and they rode on.

As a compliment to Robin, the Sheik of Ras al-Khaimah asked us to lunch, mentioned elsewhere and afterwards we went walking, Robin and the Sheik in front and Jill, Con and I behind. Con was a very striking looking woman. Good figure and carriage, very cheerful with sparkling eyes and attractive face, in spite of quite a big nose. Her self confidence was great! She went forward and addressed the Sheik. He turned round and looked at her with complete disdain, as if he couldn't believe a WOMAN could have dared to address him! She fell back quickly. She was not slow in reading the signs.

We occasionally met the Trucial Scout's officers who were stationed several miles away. Jill and Robin had been looking after a delightful parrot and a young desert buck, who both lived on the verandah. Ken and Archie came to pick them up and we carried them out to their car. I shall never forget the screams from Archie when Robin put the young buck on Archie's lap! (He was wearing Khaki shorts and the bucks hooves were VERY sharp.

We had a nice picnic, meeting Ken and Archie. Robin had taken a CASE of champagne and some Caviare and they had brought sausages and bacon to sizzle over a little fire. (Though the desert was plantless, there had been, over the years, the odd rainstorms. These would produce small growths of shrubs and coarse grass, which soon died but left bits of sticks and leaves which could be used to light fires years later.) After a time Archie and Ken went back to their camp, Jill and Robin went to sleep and Con and I set off for a walk. A Bedu train of men and camels passed at about 300 yards. Not one of them looked in our direction, tho' of course they saw us as they approached. Two women, dressed in cotton frocks, must have been a very strange sight to them. Possibly written off as Djins?

The first question a polite Arab asked us was how many children we had. My answer was 'three daughters' brought a very (polite) negative sniff. Con's reply of 'No Children' produced almost disdain and she got a bit fed up with this.

Jill asked the Sheik's wife to tea and she brought Khalid, her son with her. We knew Khalid quite well (Robin had brought him to England). When (Mrs) Sheik asked Con what children she had, Con said, 'Six Sons'. Mrs Sheik was deeply impressed but Khalid got the giggles, as he knew it was not true!

I was absolutely horrified to see a post card of Ras al-Khaimah a short time ago. It could have been Brighton Front.

When I was on that coast it was 100 miles of superb beach and tepid sea water. You could drive all the length of it and never see a soul. The odd Arab would hop over the dunes to go to the loo and once we saw four Arabs sitting in a close huddle and Robin said they were gambling, strictly forbidden and probably drinking beer. Wicked.

I said to Robin that I had £4000, why shouldn't I build a hotel on that lovely coast. He wrote that one off very quickly! Now there are certainly 2 huge hotels there and Robin planted beautiful gardens that surround them They are nearly 100 miles apart - or they were. I expect now the whole coast is built on. Must find out!

Once Jill took us miles along the coast and we stopped to have a picnic lunch. An Arab came over the dunes and spotted us. He squatted down about 20 yards away. Jill said to me 'put on Robin's hat and look like a man!' He was obviously not going to move, so we had to pack up the lunch and move on five miles or so!

Idly conversing with Jill one day, I asked if camels ever jumped while racing. Jill thought this very funny and said 'of course the don't'. She disappeared for thirty minutes or so and came pack with a wonderful picture of a Camel Race. Little boy riders in the air clinging on to reins. Camels legs all over the place and one camel taking off at speed up a mountain. Having had a good laugh we left it on the table. Robin came in, looked at the picture with great interest. 'I didn't know camels jumped' he said. Jill, with a perfectly straight face said 'of course they do - the ruler has a meeting very year'.

Other people who saw the picture had the same reaction and the picture became quite famous. When Robin was killed the picture was given to the Ruler. Jill had come straight home.

Cast of Characters.
Jill Huntington - later Jill Smiley - eldest daughter of Barbara
Robin Huntington - her husband, who made it all possible.
Ted - Jill and Robin decided, after 20 years to come home to have a family. Ted came to replace Robin from the Sudan.
Archie - A Trucial Scout and good friend.
Ken - another Trucial Scout
Con - Ma's good friend




Jill and Robin's Wedding




More Memories - written later

My friend Con and I were in our forties when we first went to the Trucial States. She was my daughter Jill's Godmother - and a very good one at that! Jill and her husband Robin invited us to stay near Ras-al-Khaimer. Con really wanted to go but tho' I wanted to, badly, I could not afford it! Con offered to pay all our expenses! After that there were no doubts.

We flew to Sharjah, to be met by Robin and Jill and to stare, unbelievingly at 200 miles of roadless desert on the way to their house. House? It was a palm frond edifice, sparsely furnished but the sand floors were covered with Persian rugs. The 'facilities' were scanty but adequate. Ras al-Khaimah, where the Sheik lived was 12 miles away. It was a mud village, with a mud palace for the Sheik. There lived a missionary woman, the only other white woman in the Trucial States.

Jill and Robin had two Arab servants, one who they called Jeeves and a butler called Charles. They called the latter Charles as it was more befitting to the only butler they were ever like to have! Jeeves seemed appropriate for the other one.

Just a word about Jill and Robin. Jill was a confident and intelligent girl of 19, pretty and auburn haired. At the age of 11 we had discovered that she had a damaged heart. We were warned that it must not be operated on, without reference to Guy's Hospital. Robin knew this when he proposed to her and knew her specialist had said she should not have children - as it was too dangerous for her but had added with a smile, 'But good luck to her if she does!'. Robin, aged 29 came home on leave for a month. His brother Jack had met Jill at a dance and decided she was perfect for Robin. He had told his Mother who lived in London. All this was known to us all and the telephone buzzed between us!

Robin, on leave from the Trucial States, and his Mother asked Jill, who was at St James' doing a secretarial course, to come to lunch. Actually she had just come out of Guy's Hospital where they had put a tube through her arm (I think) into her heart and she was feeling a bit precious. She was longing to meet Robin and accepted. Jill was 17½ then and full of confidence having mixed with lots of Midshipmen friends in Malta.

Jill fell in love with Robin immediately and was also in great awe of this sophisticated man of 28. After lunch he said he wanted to go to Kew, would she like to come? Against her better judgment (she was very tired) she said 'Yes' enthusiastically!

That night Robin rang his brother Jack, to say he had met the girl he was going to marry! Jack was very indignant as he had meant to be the one who introduced them! Robin did not propose to Jill at once, but brought her over to our house to ask her Father's permission to propose. So Jack and I met Robin for the first time. He never had the chance to ask Jack as Adria and Prue were going back to school next day and Jill was going back to St James', so Robin said he would drive us up.

We dumped Jill and Robin drove me on to my destination saying on the way 'I am thinking of going to the States, Mexico and Canada, I should like to take Jill with me. What do you think ... Oh - as my wife of course'

I did not have to think very hard before saying I thought it was a super idea! He did not propose for another week or so as Jill .........