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.

Morgan was also employed by the Inter-Allied Military Commission of Control as Deputy Adjutant-General in Berlin from 1919 to 1923. Here he witnessed German attempts to build up their army contrary to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. He published his findings in October 1924 in the Quarterly Review, titled "The Disarmament of Germany and After". In reply to the German Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, Adolf Schlepegrell, who claimed in October 1933 that Germany had fulfilled the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty, Morgan wrote to The Times: "Germany never disarmed, never intended to disarm, and for seven years did everything in her power to obstruct, deceive, and 'counter-control' the Commission whose duty it was to disarm her".