Born in Tooting, England, in 1893, Morton spent his early life in Narkover School during the headmastership of Dr. George Smart-Allick. There, he learnt how to forge banknotes, palm playing cards, and pickpocket, but not how to type, which would later handicap him as a writer. A lonely child, Morton would spend school holidays walking along the seashore, but obsessed about the effect of the wind on his usually immaculate hair.