ABSTRACT
Throughout his long life Morton was never happier than when extremely busy, even if he complained about his schedule: ‘I like plenty of work’, as he wrote to John Coulson in the FO in March 1946.2 He worked scarcely less hard in retirement, slowing down somewhat only in the last few years before his death on 31 July 1971 at the age of seventy-nine. He worked rigorously long hours for the NHS until March 1966, undertook other voluntary work and was extremely active in the affairs of the Catholic Laity, maintaining all the while an extensive correspondence with those who sought the (non-attributable) benefit of his knowledge and experience on a wide range of political, economic and theological matters. As well as satisfying his personal ethical, and perhaps psychological imperative to be occupied usefully at all times, these activities provided him with the professional and social contacts that prevented life after Whitehall from seeming barren and isolated.
