Researching Frank Morton

Morton was born at Bromley, Kent, England, the son of James Morton, a plumber, and his wife Rhoda, née Hookham. He was educated at a private school at Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, where he obtained a good grounding in the classics and French.

At 16 years of age Morton migrated to Sydney with his family. Early in 1889 he obtained work as a seaman and sailed in the Conqueror for America but left the ship at Hong Kong. He was a teacher there for a few months, and at the end of the year obtained work on The Straits Times. In 1892 he went to Calcutta and did editorial work on the Englishman.

In 1894 he returned to Australia. He worked for various papers in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania for about 10 years before joining the staff of the Otago Daily Times in 1905. His most remarkable work in New Zealand, however, was his editing of a monthly journal, the Triad, of which he frequently wrote the greater part himself under various pen-names. In 1908 he published Laughter and Tears, Verses of a Journalist, at Wellington, and in 1909 The Angel of the Earthquake, prose sketches with a poem. The Yacht of Dreams, a novel, was published in 1911.

Morton returned to Australia about 1914 and contributed a significant amount of journalism, both prose and verse, to the Triad, The Bulletin, the Lone Hand, and others. His Verses for Marjorie and Some Others was published in September 1916, followed by The Secret Spring (1919), and Man and the Devil, a Book of Shame and Pity (1922). He was a friend of David McKee Wright. He lived at Manly, New South Wales, for some years and died of acute nephritis on 15 December 1923. In Singapore in 1891 he had married Louise Holloway, who survived him with three sons and two daughters. -Terence, Beaumont James, Marjorie and Enid. Marjorie's third son was Ian Ross, television news presenter. Beaumont's grandson Glenn Myles is also a journalist.

Morton was an excellent journalist, short story writer, and critic. J. F. Archibald regarded Morton as one of three journalists who "lifted journalism to the plane of literature". About six of his poems have been included in anthologies.

A fast bowler, Morton made his first-class debut for South Australia in the 1921–22 season. He played a few more games for South Australia before moving to Melbourne during the 1922–23 season. He made his debut for Victoria in 1926–27. In his second match Victoria compiled the world record score of 1107; Morton, batting at number 10, was run out without scoring.

He took 23 wickets at an average of 34.78 in the 1926–27 season, and 28 wickets at 27.96 in 1927–28, when Victoria won the Sheffield Shield and Morton was the leading pace bowler in the competition. He was selected in a 13-man squad to tour New Zealand at the end of the season on the basis of his "sheer pace". He played in four of the six first-class matches on the tour, including one of the two against New Zealand, but he took only seven wickets, and none at all against New Zealand. He was more successful in the minor matches.

In later years his form fell away. He took only one wicket (that of Douglas Jardine) when Victoria played MCC in November 1928. His last four matches were played against Tasmania, as captain, when Victoria fielded weaker teams than its Sheffield Shield side. In his last match, in 1931–32, he took his career-best figures in the second innings, 5 for 40, including a hat-trick.