Geoffrey J. Morton

Geoffrey J. Morton, BEM (1907–1996) was a member of the Palestine Police, who, in two separate incidents, shot five people, three of them fatally.

All five people were members of Lehi, a militant Zionist group which attempted to form an anti-British alliance with Nazi Germany and staged an insurgency against British rule in Palestine during World War II, with the aim of creating a Jewish state.

Among those killed was Avraham Stern, the leader of Lehi.

The circumstances under which Morton killed Stern were disputed, and the controversy effectively ended his active police work in Palestine.

Geoffrey Jackson Morton grew up in South London, following grammar school he began work in a dairy firm where his father was managing director, but after becoming a special constable during the General Strike of 1926 he decided on a career in law enforcement.

Despite lacking the military background which recruiters preferred, Morton succeeded in joining the Palestine Police in 1930, but after passing through the army-style basic training he was assigned to a transport unit.

Frustrated at the lack of opportunity for police work he left the force in 1932, rejoining six months later on hearing about changes made by Inspector General Roy Spicer.

Once Morton had passed his higher language examination in Arabic he received accelerated promotion under Spicer's patronage, reaching the (sergeant-major equivalent) rank of Head Constable at the beginning of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, only his steel helmet prevented a coping stone from smashing his skull during one riot in Haifa.

In 1936 he was awarded the British Empire Medal, he married in 1939.

The leader of the right wing Zionists, Ze'ev Jabotinsky was ambivalent about reprisals on Arabs but in response to terrorist attacks on Jews the Irgun launched a wave of retaliatory actions, these reached a crescendo on Sunday, 14 November 1937.

As the Arab revolt wound down Avraham Stern's faction diverged from the Irgun (which ceased operations during the war so as not to give any aid or comfort to Nazi Germany which it regarded as the greatest enemy of the Jewish people), and led his group Lehi on a campaign against Britain's rule.

Stern lent heavily on examples from Jewish history such as the Zealots and Bar Kokhba, maintaining that heroism in the face of overwhelming odds would bring success.

Opponents accused Stern of being overly influenced by integral nationalism and naive about the danger posed by Nazism; he regarded war between Western democracies and Nazi Germany as "a conflict between Gog and Magog".

Lehi concentrated its armed struggle on the British, Stern claiming that they were the real "enemy" rather than Germany which was a "persecutor".

Stern had very little support in the wider Jewish community for his violent campaign against the British Mandate for Palestine.

By April 1938 he was an Assistant Superintendent in charge of the Jenin Division.

Jenin was the hotbed of rural Palestinian resistance to British rule, along with Nablus and Tulkarm, and Bernard Montgomery praised Morton for discharging his duties effectively while showing a particular talent for rooting out arms caches, sometimes by an imaginative use of ruses which belied his rather solemn demeanor.

He was noted for his coolness under fire in several skirmishes although he downplayed this by saying that Arabs were bad shots.

The investigation into the 11 April 1938 deaths of two British policemen killed by booby trap bombs planted on a train packed with Arabs found that one Avraham Stern was behind the bombing, it was the first time Morton had heard the name.

Morton became head of CID in the Lyddal division covering Arab Jaffa and Jewish Tel Aviv, narrowly escaping death when his automatic pistol jammed during a gunfight with an Arab wanted for multiple murders, he managed to shoot dead his opponent.

Although he uncovered several big Jewish arms caches during two years in Lydda division this had no effect on Stern's group.

The austerely charismatic Stern, a poet and teacher who was referred to as "the light" by his followers, became ever more ruthless in his methods and mercilessly targeted Jewish members of the Palestine Police, regarding them as 'hirelings'.

In November 1941 Ya'acov Soffioff, an off duty Jewish constable, was shot dead while walking with his wife and young daughter.

The gunman was identified as Zelig Jacques, one of Stern's closest associates.

When his military chief of staff was arrested Stern took personal charge of operations and ordered attacks on the CID officers who were arresting his men, namely Morton and his subordinate Tom Wilkin.

Deputy Superintendent Shlomo Schiff, one of the most senior Jewish policemen (who Lehi had tried to kill in 1941) died instantly.

Inspector Nathan Goldman died the day after.

Inspector E. Turton, in his first day of a job in Tel Aviv and holder of the King's Police Medal for Gallantry for saving a trainload of Jewish people from an Arab mob, had his legs amputated before dying a week later.

Schiff and Goldman were due to testify against Stern gang members who had murdered two Jewish bystanders while robbing a bank official.

Stern's men had also placed a third IED under the walkway to the building's entrance which was intended to target the senior officers arriving on the scene after Morton and Wilkin were killed.

When Morton and Wilkins arrived in the aftermath of the rooftop bomb they were recognized by the man delegated to trigger the second IED but, contravening an order to trigger the explosion no matter how many bystanders would die, the Lehi operative did not detonate the walkway IED because of Jewish people nearby.

The bombing death of his colleagues demonstrated the Stern gang's thorough knowledge of police procedures, ingenuity in coming up with novel ploys and mastery of improvised explosive devices.

The knowledge that CID men were the prime target of explosives expert zealots had a profound effect on Morton's subsequent behavior when arresting Lehi fighters.

As a member of the Palestine police he had received pistol training which emphasized instinctive aiming and the danger of quick-reacting suspects; after the Yael Street bomb those who disregarded a warning to stay still during raids were not given the benefit of the doubt but instantly shot.

The authorities offered the large reward of £3000 for information leading to convictions and £1000 for the capture of Stern.

To this end on 20 January 1942, a multi-stage operation was mounted.

Firstly, a small explosion created the impression that there had been an accidental explosion at a Lehi bomb factory; this lured members of the Palestine Police to Tel Aviv apartment block on Ya'el street, where they were mistakenly identified by the watching Lehi operative as including the intended targets of Morton and Wilkin.

Once the policeman were on the roof of 8 Ya'el, pre-placed explosives were electronically detonated from an overlooking vantage point.

One week after the bombing, on 27 January 1942, Morton learned from a Jewish informant that four young men were renting a third floor room at the rear of 30 Dizengoff Street.

Morton chose speed and surprise over the delay that cumbersome reinforcements would involve and he raced to the apartment block with only five detectives, on arrival he posted three officers outside and led Wilkin and another CID man to the room.