Born at Bingley, Yorkshire, son of schoolmaster Albert Joseph David Walbank (1879–1967) and Clarice (1880–1965), née Fletcher, Walbank attended Bradford Grammar School[1] and went on to study Classics at Peterhouse, Cambridge.

His father was the son of a cobbler, but had left the family business on winning a scholarship and became a teacher.

[2] From 1951 to 1977, Walbank was Rathbone Professor of Ancient History and Classical Archaeology at the University of Liverpool.

In 1933, Walbank's essay "Aratos of Sicyon" won the Cambridge University Thirlwall Prize.

He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1981.