J. H. Morgan

Brigadier-General John Hartman Morgan (20 March 1876 – 8 April 1955) was a British lawyer with expertise in constitutional law. He lectured and wrote on the topic, and he also joined military service during World War I.

Early life Morgan, born on 20 March 1876 to Reverend David Morgan and his wife Julia Wethli, was educated at Caterham School, the University College of South Wales and Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied modern history. He joined the Inner Temple before becoming part of the literary staff at the Daily Chronicle between 1901 and 1903. After spending time on a research scholarship at the University of Berlin, he became a leader-writer at the Manchester Guardian between 1904 and 1905. He married actress Margaret Halstan on 4 July 1905.

During 1910, Morgan contested the parliamentary seats for Birmingham Edgbaston during the January general election and West Edinburgh during the December general election, both for the Liberal Party.

Army service Morgan volunteered for military service upon the outbreak of war in 1914 and he was appointed to the adjutant-general's staff. He was an assistant adjutant general with the military section of the British delegation to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and the British member on the Prisoners of War Commission in 1919.

In a speech to the House of Commons on 9 May 1940, David Lloyd George claimed that Germany by 1931 was "completely disarmed" and that "we had the certificate of the ambassadors to say that disarmament was completed, but in spite of that, we did not carry out our part" in disarming. Morgan wrote to the Daily Telegraph on 14 May, stating that no such certificate was issued and that "the democratic' Government of Germany did not disarm". He further claimed that the commission was withdrawn as 'the price for Germany's signature to the Treaty of Locarno and upon the acceptance of their pledge to disarm: "Those pledges were never kept. Within two years of our withdrawal the Army Estimates of the "democratic" German Government went up by leaps and bounds to an unprecedented degree". Morgan asserted that: "If any one English statesman is to be held responsible for German rearmament it is Mr. Lloyd George" because of his government's repeated assurances during 1921–22 that Germany had carried out the disarmament clauses (including the limitation of her army to 100,000) despite being informed by the senior British officer in Berlin that the number of men being trained by the army during 1920–23 was 500,000.

Later career Whilst serving in the military, Morgan was appointed Professor of Constitutional Law at University College London in 1915. Thomas Baty deputised for him until he retired from the army in 1923; he taught until 1941. In 1918, Morgan investigated a case involving Dr. A. M. Low.

Appointed King's Counsel in 1926, Morgan was a legal editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica (14th edition) and a contributor to The Times. Then a reader in constitutional law to the Inns of Court (1926–1936), Rhodes Lecturer at London (1927–1932), counsel to the India Defence League (1933–1934), counsel to the Indian Chamber of Princes (1934–1937), counsel to the Indian State of Gwalior, and Tagore Professor at the University of Calcutta in 1939.

Publications