{{Short description|British judge (1887–1973)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]] | name = The Lord Morton of Henryton | honorific_suffix = [[Military Cross|MC]] [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|PC]] | image = Lord Morton of Henryton.jpg | caption = Portrait by Harry Maude Jonas | office = [[Lord of Appeal in Ordinary]] | term_start = 18 April 1947 | term_end = 5 April 1959 | successor = [[David Jenkins, Baron Jenkins|The Lord Jenkins]] | office1 = [[Lord Justice of Appeal]] | term_start1 = 11 October 1944 | term_end1 = 18 April 1947 | office2 = [[High Court judge (England and Wales)|Justice of the High Court]] | term_start2 = 5 January 1938 | term_end2 = 11 October 1944 | predecessor2 = [[Albert Clauson, 1st Baron Clauson|Sir Albert Clauson]] | birth_name = Fergus Dunlop Morton | birth_place = [[Kelvinside]], [[Glasgow]] | birth_date = {{Birth date|1887|10|17|df=yes}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1973|7|18|1887|10|17|df=yes}} | death_place = [[Cookham]], [[Berkshire]] | spouse = {{Marriage |Margaret Greenlees |1914}} | alma_mater = [[St John's College, Cambridge]] | predecessor1 = [[Fairfax Luxmoore|Sir Fairfax Luxmoore]] | successor2 = [[Charles Romer|Sir Charles Romer]] }}
'''Fergus Dunlop Morton, Baron Morton of Henryton''', [[Military Cross|MC]], [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|PC]] (17 October 1887 – 18 July 1973)<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.leighrayment.com/peers/peersM5.htm | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080608050720/http://www.leighrayment.com/peers/peersM5.htm | archive-date = 8 June 2008 | title = Peerage – Monteagle to Mottistone | publisher = Leigh Rayment | url-status = usurped | accessdate = 30 December 2009 }}</ref> was a British barrister and judge who was a [[Lords of Appeal in Ordinary|Lord of Appeal in Ordinary]] from 1947 to 1959. The son of a Scottish stockbroker, Morton was educated in Scotland and England, before being called to the English bar. After serving with the [[British Army]] in the [[First World War]], during which he won the [[Military Cross]], he developed a successful Chancery practice. He was appointed to the [[High Court of Justice|High Court]] in 1938, promoted to the [[Court of Appeal (England and Wales)|Court of Appeal]] in 1944, and to the [[Judicial functions of the House of Lords|House of Lords]] in 1947, retiring from judicial service in 1959.
==Background and education== Born in [[Glasgow]], Morton was the youngest child and one of three sons of George Morton and Janet, ''née'' Wilson.<ref name = "Dod (1954), p. 168">Dod (1954), p. 168</ref> His father, from a farming family, left school aged thirteen and acquired a considerable fortune as a stockbroker. He was educated at [[Kelvinside Academy]] and then went to [[St John's College, Cambridge]] with an open scholarship in classics.<ref name = "Dod (1949), p. 158"/> Morton narrowly missed [[British undergraduate degree classification|first class honours]] in part one of the classical [[tripos]] in 1909 owing to illness, before taking first class honours in part two of the law tripos in 1910, topping the class list.<ref name = "Dod (1949), p. 158"/>
==Legal career==
After a year with a firm of solicitors, Morton was called to the English bar by the [[Inner Temple]] in 1912, also joining [[Lincoln's Inn]] in 1914.<ref name = "Cretney (2003), p. 801"/> He was first the pupil of the conveyancer A. L. Ellis, then of leading Chancery junior Dighton Pollock.
On the outbreak of the [[First World War]] in 1914, he was commissioned as lieutenant into the [[Highland Light Infantry]].<ref name="Cretney (2003), p. 801" /> He saw action in German East Africa, and was promoted to captain in 1915.<ref name="Who's Who (1963), p. 2171" /> In July 1918, he was awarded the [[Military Cross]].<ref>{{London Gazette| issue = 30817 |page=8969 | supp = y | date = 26 July 1918 }}</ref> Both of his brothers were killed in the war.
From 1918–19, Morton was attached to the [[War Office]], before resuming his career at the Chancery bar.<ref name="Cretney (2003), p. 801">Cretney (2003), p. 801</ref> His practice grew rapidly, and he became a [[King's Counsel]] in 1929.<ref>{{London Gazette| issue = 33473 |page=1447 | date = 1 March 1929 }}</ref> In 1932 he was elected a bencher of Lincoln's Inn (serving as treasurer in 1953).<ref name="Who's Who (1963), p. 2171" />
== Judicial career == Morton was appointed to the High Court of Justice in 1938, receiving the customary knighthood, and was assigned to the [[Chancery Division]].<ref name="Dod (1949), p. 158" /> From 1941, he chaired the Black List Committee for the following five years.<ref name="Who's Who (1963), p. 2171">Who's Who (1963), p. 2171</ref> He was appointed a [[Lord Justice of Appeal]] in 1944 and on this occasion was sworn of the [[Privy Council]].<ref name="Dod (1949), p. 158">Dod (1949), p. 158</ref> Three years thereafter the number of the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary was increased to nine and one of the new seats was assigned to Morton.<ref name="Dod (1954), p. 168" /> He obtained the traditional [[life peer]]age, taking the title '''Baron Morton of Henryton''', of Henryton, in the County of Ayr.<ref>{{London Gazette| issue = 37938 |page=1775 | date = 22 April 1947 }}</ref>
Morton joined the [[Council of Legal Education]] in 1949, which he left after four years.<ref name = "Who's Who (1963), p. 2171"/> In 1950 he sat on the Committee on the Law of Intestate Succession (named the Morton Committee)<ref>Cretney (2003), p. 482</ref> and in the subsequent year he became chairman of the Royal Commission on Marriage and Divorce (named the Morton Commission).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lawreform.ie/publications/data/volume1/lrc_7.html |title=Working Paper No. 5 |publisher=Law Reform Commission of Ireland |accessdate=30 December 2009 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090929035302/http://www.lawreform.ie/publications/data/volume1/lrc_7.html |archivedate=29 September 2009 }}</ref> Lincoln's Inn selected him its treasurer in 1953.<ref name = "Who's Who (1963), p. 2171"/> He retired as Lord of Appeal in 1959.<ref>Stevens (1978), p. 374</ref>
== Honours == In 1940, he was nominated an honorary fellow by his former college and in 1951 received Honorary Doctorates of Law by the [[University of Cambridge]] as well as the [[University of Glasgow]].<ref name="Who's Who (1963), p. 2171" /> Cambridge's Senate elected Morton a [[High Steward (academia)|Deputy High Steward]] in 1954.<ref name="Who's Who (1963), p. 2171" /> Two years later, the [[University of St Andrews]]<ref name="Who's Who (1963), p. 2171" /> and in 1957 the [[University of Sydney]] conferred additional doctorates upon him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usyd.edu.au/senate/honawardshistoricalyear.shtml#1957|title=Honorary awards|publisher=University of Sydney|accessdate=30 December 2009}}</ref> Both the [[American Bar Association]] and the [[Canadian Bar Association]] made Morton honorary members.<ref name="Who's Who (1963), p. 2171" /> He became also an honorary member of the [[Faculty of Advocates]].<ref name="Who's Who (1963), p. 2171" />
== Notable decisions == *''[[Margarine Reference]]'' [1951] AC 179 – Canadian federalism *''[[Paris v Stepney BC|Paris v Stepney Borough Council]]'' [1951] AC 367 – standard of care *''[[Canada Steamship Lines Ltd v R]]'' [1952] AC 192 – unfair terms ''[[contra proferentem]]'' *''[[Lister v Romford Ice and Cold Storage Co Ltd]]'' [1957] AC 555 – vicarious liability
==Family== Morton married Margaret Greenlees, elder daughter of James Begg; they had a daughter.<ref name = "Who's Who (1963), p. 2171"/> He died aged 85 in 1973.<ref name = "Cretney (2003), p. 801"/>
==Arms== {{Infobox COA wide |image = [[File:Coronet of a British Baron.svg|centre|150px]] [[File:Morton of Henryton Escutcheon.png|centre|200px]] |escutcheon = Argent on a Chevron engrailed Azure between three Roses Gules barbed and seeded proper as many Mill-Rinds Or |crest = An Eagle wings addorsed Sable gorged with a Collar flory-counterflory and resting the dexter claw on a Mill-Rind Or |motto = Mort on se reveille }}
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== {{columns-list|colwidth=30em| *{{cite book | title = Who's Who 1963 | publisher = Adam & Charles Black Ltd. | location = London | year = 1963 }} *{{cite book |author1=[[Charles Roger Dod]] |author2=Robert Philip Dod | title = Dod's Parliamentary Companion 1949 | year = 1949 | publisher = Dod's Parliamentary Companion Ltd. }} *{{cite book | last = Stevens | first = Richard Booking | title = Law and Politics: The House of Lords as a Judicial Bbody, 1800–1976 | year = 1978 | publisher = University of North Carolina Press }} *{{cite book | last = Cretney | first = Stephen Michael | title = Family Law in the Twentieth Century: A History | year = 2003 | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford | ISBN = 0-19-826899-8 }} *{{cite book |author1=Charles Roger Dod |author2=Robert Philip Dod | title = Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland 1954 | year = 1954 | publisher = Business Dictionaries Ltd. | location = London }} }}
==External links== *{{hansard-contribs | mr-fergus-morton | Fergus Morton, Baron Morton of Henryton }} *{{NPG name}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morton, Fergus}} [[Category:1887 births]] [[Category:1973 deaths]] [[Category:Lawyers from Glasgow]] [[Category:Nobility from Glasgow]] [[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]] [[Category:Knights Bachelor]] [[Category:Scottish knights]] [[Category:Law lords|Morton of Henryton]] [[Category:Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council]] [[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Recipients of the Military Cross]] [[Category:Chancery Division judges]] [[Category:People educated at Kelvinside Academy]] [[Category:Highland Light Infantry officers]] [[Category:Members of Lincoln's Inn]] [[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau]] [[Category:Recipients of the Medal of Freedom]] [[Category:Lord justices of appeal]] [[Category:Life peers created by George VI]]