Kenneth J. Morton (1858 – 29 January 1940) was a Scottish entomologist, with a particular interest in the study of Odonata and Neuroptera. He was born at Carluke, Lanarkshire, Scotland, and he died at Edinburgh. His collections are held at the National Museums of Scotland. They include specimens of dragonflies (from worldwide), caddis flies, lacewings and stoneflies.

Biography

Kenneth John Morton was born on 5 August 1858. His parents were Andrew Morton (b. circa 1820), a cabinet maker, sawmill foreman and Ironmonger who ran a business in Carluke High Street, and Helen Valentine Home (b. circa 1823), who had married in 1847. Morton had sisters named Eleanor and Sarah. In 1940 the Morton family were described as one of the oldest families of Carluke. Kenneth Morton's regular job was as a secretary and accountant at the British Linen Bank, beginning his employment at the age of 16 in Glasgow but eventually moving to the Bank's head office in Edinburgh. Morton retired from his job at the bank circa 1923. In 1888 Morton married Agnes Brownlee Forrest Freeland of Glasgow: they had already been acquainted for at least five years as Freeland is recorded as sending Morton a collection of insects from Glaslough, Ireland in 1883, which Morton wrote about in The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine. The couple had four children: Marguerite Forrest Ross Morton (1889-1972 ), Helena Valentine Morton (c.1890-1906), Andrew Morton (b. and d. 1891) and Kenneth Valentine Morton (c.1907-2003). Later in their marriage, Morton was sometimes accompanied by Agnes on entomological fieldwork e.g. on trips to Norway in 1900 and Switzerland in 1904, and he noted that she was a skilled insect collector in her own right. Morton was a friend of James Joseph Francis Xavier King, and they went on entomological study trips together, e.g. to Killarney, Ireland in August 1887 and Rannoch in the Scottish Highlands in June 1889. Morton became known as an authority in Trichoptera, particularly the family Hydroptilidae, and entomologist Robert McLachlan noted in 1902 that Morton was a reliable person to consult once his own worsening eyesight had affected his work: "Mr Morton has kindly given me the benefit of his good eyes by examining the materials in this family." Many of Morton's collecting localities were in Scotland: in one paper he commented on the relative increase in smoke pollution when he had needed to move himself for a period in 1896 from Carluke to Uddingston (where his wife Agnes's family came from), and how this had influenced which insects he was able to find, however despite his assumption that the river Clyde would have picked up more impurities further along its route, he found that Trichoptera were still plentiful. On 22 February 1893 Morton was elected a Fellow of the Entomological Society of London.

Death and legacy

Morton died at his home at Blackford Road, Edinburgh, on 29 January 1940. Morton and his wife Agnes, who died in 1943, are laid to rest together in a Freeland family plot at Old Carluke Cemetery in South Lanarkshire. Morton's entomological collections were bequeathed to the Royal Scottish Museum (precursor to the National Museum of Scotland), where they were later curated by Andrew Rodger Waterston (1912-1996). Some of Morton's specimens are also in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London: these are specimens which were originally sent by Morton to other entomologists like Robert McLachlan or Martin Mosely (e.g. Rhyacophila septentrionis McLachlan, 1865 from Carluke NHMUK014557136, Rhyacophila obliterata McLachlan, 1863 from Cleghorn NHMUK014559270, Hydroptila vectis Curtis, 1834 from Carluke NHMUK014559879) and tubes of Beraeodes minutus (Linnaeus, 1761) from Carluke NHMUK014569545.

Selected works