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.

[2] 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.

[3] 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.

[5] Morton was appointed to the High Court of Justice in 1938, receiving the customary knighthood, and was assigned to the Chancery Division.