The son of Harry Arthur Fitzgerald Wall and Marie Louise Wall, John Wall was educated at Wandsworth School and the London School of Economics, where he graduated BCom in 1933 and was elected honorary fellow in 1970.
[1] Wall was with O. T. Falk & Co. from 1933 to 1939, when he joined the Ministry of Food, where he remained until 1952, rising to the rank of Under-Secretary from 1948 to 1952.
He was deputy chairman of the Post Office Board from 1966 to 1968, chairman of International Computers (Holdings) Ltd and International Computers Ltd. from 1968 to 1972, of Burrup Mathieson (Holdings) Ltd. from 1973 to 1976, and a part-time member of the Sugar Board from 1964 to 1977.
On 5 February 1976, he was created a life peer as Baron Wall, of Coombe in Greater London.
[1] Wall married Gladys Evelyn, née Wright in 1939; they had two sons and one daughter.