Background
Wall was born in East Finchley.
Wall was born in East Finchley.
After further strong academic performance in his Higher School Certificate, he was accepted into Balliol College, Oxford where he read jurisprudence and graduated in 1951.
He suffered from glaucoma from an early age, which caused him to go completely blind by the age of eight. After his blindness took hold, he moved from a mainstream school to Chorleywood School for the Blind. He moved to Worcester College for the Blind (now New College Worcester) in 1940.
He also played chess at school and university.
His blindness presented him with difficulties in finding a job. He made over 400 job applications after graduating and was invited to 53 interviews before he was offered a job as an articled clerk at Wilkins, Rowan and Newman, a small law firm of solicitors in Chelsea.
He qualified as a solicitor in 1954, and in 1956 he began working as a legal adviser for the National Association of Local Government Officers (now part of Unison). Around this time he attempted to become a judge, but his application was rejected due to the potential difficulties his blindness could cause (as he would be unable to read court documents or study witnesses, for example) and because it was felt appointing a blind judge would not leave the public confident he could perform his duties.
He again applied to become a judge in 1990 and was this time successful.
He was formally appointed as a Deputy Master of the High Court in the Chancery Division in 1991. He is believed to be the first blind person to be appointed to judicial office in modern times, and possibly the first since the 18th century. A clerk helped him to deal with his paperwork, reading the case materials to him before court hearings and reading barristers" written submissions.
He was noted for his speed, work ethic and efficiency.
He was chairman of the Society of Blind Lawyers, and served on the committees of the Royal National Institute for the Blind and the European Blind Union. He was president of the EBU from 1996 to 2003.
After serving on the executive council of the RNIB since 1962, he its chairman from 1990 to 2000. In the 1994 Queen"s Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, "Foreign services to Blind People", and was knighted in the 2000 Queen"s Birthday Honours, "Foreign services to Disabled People".
He died on 1 December 2008 of heart failure.