He was the eldest son of businessman Sir John Moores CBE who founded the Littlewoods company.
John Moores was born at Beech Lawn Nursing Home, Waterloo, Merseyside on 22 November 1928.
He remained a trustee, and served as Pro-Chancellor and Chair of the Board of Governors from 1992 until 1994, when he became the university's 2nd Chancellor until the end of his term in 1999.
His older sister Betty Suenson-Taylor, The Dowager Lady Grantchester, who married her husband Kenneth Bent Suenson-Taylor, 2nd Baron Grantchester, his younger brother Sir Peter Moores, CBE, DL and younger sister Janitha Moores.
He was educated at Eton College, Berkshire, from the Autumn of 1941 where he excelled academically and in sports, and later spent two years at Syracuse University in New York in the late 1940s studying a business course.