Just The Job. Some Experiences of a Colonial Policeman

London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1st edition. 1957. Near fine red cloth covers in a very good plus pictorial dust jacket. Minor wear to the corners. Rear panel lightly soiled. Contents fine. Frontis of the author and numerous other black and white ills. Very scarce.

Geoffrey J. Morton, BEM (1907-1996) was a member of the Palestine Police who in separate incidents shot dead two suspects and Avraham Stern, the leader of the militant Zionist group, Lehi, which staged an insurgency against British rule in Palestine during World War II with the aim of creating a Jewish state. The circumstances under which Morton killed Stern were disputed, and the controversy effectively ended his active police work in Palestine. Stern became regarded as an important forerunner of the political right wing in Israel.

Morton's appointment in Palestine ended in January 1945. Later, Morton worked in Trinidad (though even there he was warned that it was likely a further attempt would be made on his life) before ending his career in 1954 as deputy police commissioner of Nyasaland. He liked Africans and Africa and this was a happy period of service although, unlike some contemporaries, he viewed the Apartheid system of South Africa with considerable distaste. Returning to England he worked in personnel and security at an engineering firm, his memoir Just the Job: Some Experiences of a Colonial Policeman was published in 1957. Morton died at the age of 89; he was survived by his wife, son and a daughter.