Dickson House, Q8

For the last three years we had been planning to visit Dickson House but for some reason or the other it never materialized. So when my brother visited us and we took him to various places of interest in Kuwait, we included Dickson House in our itinerary.

 

The house of the first British political agent in Kuwait is still standing. The Dickson House, located across from the dhow harbor east of Sief Palace, was originally a Kuwaiti home built in 1870, but was given to Britain to use as residential headquarters. The compound was expanded several times over the years, but stands as an excellent example of early Kuwaiti architectural styles. This home of the first British political envoy, stands as a symbol of the strong political ties between Kuwait and Britain.

Built in the early 1900s, the house was used as the headquarters of successive British political envoys appointed to Kuwait, beginning with Colonel Knox in 1904, with the last and arguably the best known resident being Colonel Harold Dickson who left it in 1935 to work in the new headquarters at the British Embassy.

After his retirement from the political service in 1936 at the age of 55, Colonel Dickson was appointed by the then Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, as Chief Local Representative for the newly established Kuwait Oil Company. This had been formed in 1934 and Colonel Dickson had been closely involved with setting it up with the development of oil exploration in Kuwait. With his new position Colonel Dickson was able to move out of the new political residence to his beloved house on the sea-front. After retiring, Colonel Dickson and his wife Lady Violet went back to live in the house. The colonel passed away in 1959 and his wife, known to Kuwaitis as Umm Saud, remained living there until the 1990 invasion of Kuwait when she was evacuated to Britain, where she died shortly afterwards.

The ground floor is dedicated to mainly historical photography and a few artifacts from the early 20th century like currency notes and so on. We then went upstairs to the Dicksons' living quarters, and that was the part I enjoyed the most because it is carefully restored to reflect how this elderly English couple lived among Kuwaitis. The museum guide came and introduced himself to us. Mr Ahmed is from Kashmir, India and we were happy to meet an Indian. 

 He explained to us in details the various photographs, the things Dickson and his wife used. Those included writing tools (ink pot, pen case, manual typewriter, handmill);  wooden boxes colloquially called " Beshtakhth" made of ebony, usually used by jewelers and skippers for safekeeping, tea pot, his radio, telephone, chinese pots, wooden pots, hooks to keep keys and many more. The dining table, bed, sofa, side table, dressing table, chest of drawers, air coolers, the car used by the Dickons are nicely preserved. The black and white photos they were hung in the different rooms of the house were of the Dickson couple when they were young, with their children and grandchildren, with friends, their servants, in Kuwait desert, husband and wife riding horse, with then Minister of Public Health Fahed Al Salem, in desert camp, at the inauguration of a new church in Ahmadi in 27-01-1957, a party in the honour of Mr Hasan Ahmed Khalifah Al Saeed for his 30yrs working at KOC in 14-01-1958 , arrival of American Ambassador in Kuwait in 16-12-1957, with the KOC rugby team, as Chief Representative of KOC and many more.  

The large courtyard at the backside and the balcony from where one can enjoy excellent view of the sun-setting, attracted me the most.

The Dickson House has become a symbol of the deep friendship and strong political relations between Kuwait and Britian which have existed for years and which are still being strengthened and reinforced through political , military, commercial, educational and cultural exchanges.