In 1938, he was appointed Staff Officer (Plans), Naval HQ, aboard HMIS Dalhousie.

[1] Hall was promoted to commodore 2nd Class on 1 December 1942,[2] and appointed chief of staff to the Commander-in-Chief of the RIN.

In January 1944, he was promoted to captain and appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire.

On 1 April 1950, he was promoted to the substantive rank of rear-admiral in the newly renamed Indian Navy.

In 1933, he married Agnes Maud Shereen; the couple had one daughter (Elizabeth Anne) and a son (also John) who died in a missile hook-up accident while training with the Fleet Air-arm of the Scottish coast near HMS Fulmar, RNAS (now RAF) Lossiemouth.