[1] Tindall was born in Leliefontein, a small Wesleyan mission station in the Namaqualand region of South Africa.
His father, Henry Tindall, was a Wesleyan missionary, who also travelled widely in the area and became an expert on the customs and language of the Nama people.
[1][3] Tindall started his working life in the Cape Civil Service and then as private secretary of Justice James Rose Innes.
He took silk in 1919 and in 1922 was appointed a judge of the Transvaal Provincial Division.
[3][4] Tindall was the editor of the autobiography by the second Chief Justice of South Africa, James Rose Innes, titled: