Hal Morton was born on 18 August 1905 in Port Greville, Nova Scotia, Canada, the son of Charles S Morton, a physician in Halifax, and Marie née Stafford. He was educated at St Andrews College, Toronto, and then Dalhousie University, where he became a member of the Phi Rho Sigma Fraternity of Canada.

The second son of George Toynbee, a large tenant farmer and landowner in Lincolnshire, was born at Heckington in that county on December 30th, 1815. He was educated at King's Lynn Grammar School, and was apprenticed at the age of 17 to William Wade, of the Westminster General Dispensary in Gerrard S