On a late Thursday morning in London's clubland, once the heart of the British Empire, few of the office workers hurrying to lunch paid much attention to the handful of elderly men and women who slipped through the elegant Corinthian columns guarding the entrance to the 19th-century Oxford & Cambridge Club on Pall Mall.
If they had, they might have noticed a certain something about them – a spring in the step and straightness of back that belied age and owed something, perhaps, to their having lived through interesting times in what was once one of the more out-of-the-way postings.
Veterans of Abu Dhabi in the 1960s, they gathered in a small dining room at the rear of the club. They had come to remember a time when they were pioneers in a harsh land, at a moment when the sun that was rapidly setting on their empire was simultaneously lighting the way ahead for an embryonic nation taking its first steps.
Each left their mark on the nation that would grow to become the UAE – just as that nation would leave its mark on them.
Not that everyone was convinced in the early days that the collection of minor sheikhdoms then still known as the Trucial States had any kind of a future.
"Frankly, we all thought it was going to go back into the sand," recalled Miles Stockwell, now 69, and one of the first guests to arrive.
His first sight of Abu Dhabi and Dubai had been in March 1968, as a young British soldier.
As the four-engine Bristol Britannia on which he was travelling from Bahrain to RAF Sharjah flew along the Gulf coast to Abu Dhabi and beyond, he gazed down – and saw "not a lot".
He and his fellow officers, he says, "would never have believed what it has become today".
Back then, he was a 24-year-old captain seconded from his regiment to command a squadron in the Trucial Oman Scouts (TOS), a force that had been set up by the British in the 1950s to keep the peace among the emirates.
He'd hoped for a posting to Oman, where "there was a chance of some kind of action. But it was full that year, and this was the nearest place".
During his time in the Trucial States, there was thankfully no action to match the bitter insurgency that had begun in the neighbouring Sultanate of Oman in 1962 and would last until 1976.
Captain Stockwell did, however, have some excitement.
His first incident, two months after his arrival, was a shooting between two tribes in Ras Al Khaimah. Keeping the peace, he recalls, "I sat there for three weeks in a tent", but there was an up side: "I learnt Arabic pretty quickly".
He served three years in the TOS, leaving in November 1970. But despite the lack of creature comforts – including proper roads and air conditioning – something about the place clearly got under his skin.
Five years later, word reached him that Sheikh Rashid of Dubai was recruiting soldiers.
Without hesitating, he applied and spent the next three years serving in the Dubai Defence Force.
And he wasn't done with the place. Inspired by Sheikh Rashid's vision for Dubai – "we were pretty keen on him" – when he left the army in 1975, he returned immediately and started a trading business.
Most of the British who came in the early days worked, of course, for the oil industry, whose persistence in the search for oil – which began in the 1930s and finally paid off in the1960s – laid the groundwork for the transformation of the Trucial States.
In the summer of 1964, John Grundon, 33, a veteran of eight years with BP, found himself in Abu Dhabi as leave replacement for the company's chief local representative.
His job was keeping the ruler informed about what was going on out on Das Island, centre of offshore oil exploration.
At that time, the ruler was Sheikh Shakhbut, who "was rather opposed to any sort of development," recalls Grundon, now 81, who got to know and like the ruler during frequent meetings in Qasr Al Hosn, the 18th-century fort that survives as Abu Dhabi's oldest stone building.
Grundon stayed just four months. When he returned to Abu Dhabi in May 1967, he found that everything – including the ruler – had changed.
Shakhbut had been succeeded by his younger brother, Sheikh Zayed, whose priority was to improve the lives of his people.
In such momentous times, excitement was never far away.
Shortly after Grundon arrived, the 1967 war broke out, and "the widespread belief among Arabs was that Britain and France were in collusion with the Israelis, and that led to a certain amount of problems".
The workforce had begun to organise itself and there was an attempt to ban French and British tankers from loading at Das island.
Zayed, however, showed himself to be an able and pragmatic leader.
"He realised that would be rather damaging economically, and said to us: 'We will carry on filling tankers that belong to you, or that are chartered by you, but would you kindly avoid sending in any of the BP tankers?', so we kept those away."
It was, says Peter Raeburn-Ward, 73, another former BP man and the organiser of the get-together, "a pretty special era. We were all, in our own way, pioneers".
He was posted to Das Island in September 1967, responsible for 2,000 workers as personnel officer for the non-British staff.
In 1969, the administration office moved to Abu Dhabi Island, where he was joined by his wife, Ruth.
She became one of the first teachers at The British School Al Khubairat.
Their son, James, would be born in the Corniche Hospital in 1986.
Prior to Abu Dhabi, Raeburn-Ward had worked for BP in California, where, on an immigrant visa, he only narrowly avoided being called up for the Vietnam War – and Kenya, "where we were shot at by Somali freedom fighters".
All in all, by the time he got to Das Island in 1967 "I was pretty well experienced".
Abu Dhabi, however, proved a different kind of adventure: "The marvellous experience of being in a country that was really just about to happen, but which had amazing links to the past. We were privileged to mix with the Abu Dhabians as friends".
He left Abu Dhabi in 1971, but returned again 20 years later to work with Abu Dhabi Gas Liquefaction (Adgas).
"When I went up to Buraimi and Al Ain, I was bumping into people who remembered me from the Das Island days."
He smiles at the memory.
"We had this group of young Abu Dhabians, we trained them and groomed them to be senior managers and they grew up with us. And they remained our friends because they were part of our family."
Now, sadly, the British branch of that family is dwindling in number.
Although the London reunion "went extraordinarily well", said Raeburn-Ward, from a potential list of 40 only 18 made it.
"Some of the old-timers didn't come for a variety of reasons," he said, "But it is a 50s-60s event, and we have to learn to lose some of them along the wayside, I'm afraid."
Those that remain, however, take justifiable pride in having played a part in the birth of a nation.
"What the UAE's achieved is amazing," said Raeburn-Ward, as he sat down with the others to reminisce over a lunch of guinea fowl.
"What impresses the most is that it's used its oil wealth to create something which is very, very viable, which is going to take them a long way."
Jonathan Gornall is a frequent contributor to The Review
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If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
Company%20Profile
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Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
Company%20profile
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster who has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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If you go
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct to Nairobi, with fares starting from Dh1,695. The resort can be reached from Nairobi via a 35-minute flight from Wilson Airport or Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, or by road, which takes at least three hours.
The rooms
Rooms at Fairmont Mount Kenya range from Dh1,870 per night for a deluxe room to Dh11,000 per night for the William Holden Cottage.
European arms
Known EU weapons transfers to Ukraine since the war began: Germany 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Luxembourg 100 NLAW anti-tank weapons, jeeps and 15 military tents as well as air transport capacity. Belgium 2,000 machine guns, 3,800 tons of fuel. Netherlands 200 Stinger missiles. Poland 100 mortars, 8 drones, Javelin anti-tank weapons, Grot assault rifles, munitions. Slovakia 12,000 pieces of artillery ammunition, 10 million litres of fuel, 2.4 million litres of aviation fuel and 2 Bozena de-mining systems. Estonia Javelin anti-tank weapons. Latvia Stinger surface to air missiles. Czech Republic machine guns, assault rifles, other light weapons and ammunition worth $8.57 million.
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
RESULT
Brazil 2 Croatia 0
Brazil: Neymar (69'), Firmino (90' 3)
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
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Ronaldo's record at Man Utd
Seasons 2003/04 - 2008/09
Appearances 230
Goals 115
How to register as a donor
1) Organ donors can register on the Hayat app, run by the Ministry of Health and Prevention
2) There are about 11,000 patients in the country in need of organ transplants
3) People must be over 21. Emiratis and residents can register.
4) The campaign uses the hashtag #donate_hope
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
A%20QUIET%20PLACE
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Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed