I am indebted to Alan Ward for the following contribution June 2016

Alan Morton

Purser extraordinary, WW2 veteran Atlantic Star and rosette, Africa Star and rosette.

Away to sea in 1942 at 14, a lovely, lovely, kind bloke.

RIP Al never forgotten.

I first met Alan Morton in 1972 when I joined the Clan Malcolm he was sailing with his wife Peggy.

He was a Senior 2 and half ring Purser and had been for some time

First going to sea as a Catering Boy during the war, wining the Atlantic Star and several others, apparantly he`d also been on the Clan Malcolm for some considerable time.

For a middle aged man with no children of his own he certainly had an easy way with the crowd of cadets we had on board and he straightened me out. Taking a disorganised although experienced smart-arse and turning me into a competent capable Purser by a mixture of experience and a love of training and moulding characters.

He was rarely angry being a level headed steady bloke.He taught me the basics of First Aid that we needed all the time on board, teaching how to give injections and how to suture something. (I did far too much of in later years.)

He recommended me for promotion after my time with him and I will never forget his confidence in me. My wife and I visited him at his home in Meols a couple of times but we lost touch as our times at home rarely coincided.

He was an avid photographer and had albums of shots he`d taken throughout his career including some from the time he worked with Hector Whaling scenes taken in the South Atlantic of whales being flensed on deck..

Strangely he was open to suggestion and as he charged me with doing all the menus. He wandered over to my desk one day and asked what I was doing. I told him I was completing the weeks menus all at the same time, he asked why and I explained that then I wouldn’t repeat dishes and could use excess from one day to the next in sequence and as available. Usually one would be told to revert to what had been done before not Alan.

Alan you were and remain a proper bloke.

Liverpool Echo 9th May 2012

MORTON - ALAN. April 28, 2012. (Retired Purser with the Clan Line.) Suddenly but peacefully at home, aged 86 years. Dearly loved husband of Elizabeth (deceased). (Together again.) Will be sadly missed by his family and many friends. Service at St Mary and St Helen Parish Church, Neston on Wednesday May 16th at 11.00 a.m. followed by cremation at Landican

At a reunion with David Dawson