OBITUARY

SIR WILFRED MORTON

Former chairman of the Board

of Customs and Excise

Sir Wilfred 'Morton, KCB, fcrmer c.iairman of the Board o' EMU Customs and Excise died on January 7. Re ..s 74. Educated at hutchesons' GC._n_zr S%:'i)l and Glasgow University, he joined InJland Revenue in 1927 w,here after a full and varied career he became a Commissioner in 1955. From 19SS-SS he was a Third Secretary in EM Treasury before taking up the post of Chairman of the Board of HAI Customs and Excise.

.-hich he held from 19G5 to '969.

LJ.H. writes

He began his career in tie Inland Revenue, and ended it in the sister revenue department of Customs and Excise, but he looked back- w-ith most affection on his time in the Treasury, wvhere the pace and excitement of central policy maldng were verv much to his taste.

Those wvho did not k-now him may have thought he wvould relax his pace wvhen he became chairman of the Board of Customs and Excise. If so, they wvere very much mistalken. WVithin a very short time, he had in hand a massive reorganization of the venerable structure of the Department wvhich anticipated manv of the Fulton reforms of the civil sernice generally, and which later proved invaluable in the enormous newv task of administering value-added tax.

Such changes are not achieved without treading on the occasional toe, and those

vho were on the receiving end of his brisk, elficient, and occasiora`lv even ruthless. a2:rza:h coAld be f3rr2ven frseeing him as a soniewvhat aloof figure. Outwardly reserved, he wVas, to those who-had the good fortune to work with him closely, the warmest and most lovable of men, ,enuinely concer-led to test the hard decisions wvhich fell to him as head of tne Department in terms of their impact on the hopes and ambitions of the individual.

It was typical of him that among the cares of high official position, and even in the hei_ht of the Budget season, he could find time to wvork off dity on behalf of an organization devoted to the w-elfare of drum addicts and the sociallv disadvantaged; typical, too, that be took care that very fe:v of his colleagues knew. Outside the office, he had a livelv and catholic interest in all the arts, particularly opera, ballet, and the theatre, and enjoyed to the ful the simpler pleasures afforded by the gentle English countryside around his Berkshire home and the more dramatic rhythms of the landscape of the Lot in South West France wvhere he and his delightful Australian-born vife had purchased a small property towards the end of his career.

His friends and colleagues -ill reInember a man blessed with a happy marriage and a fulfilled career crowned with quiet and lasting achievement.