Geoffrey Wall arrived in Melbourne as a ten-year-old when his father was appointed manager of the Australasian branch of the London and Lancashire Fire Insurance Company. He received his education at Wesley College, Melbourne, before entering Queens College at Melbourne University in 1916. An attempt to enlist at the outbreak of the First Word War failed due to his slight build, but after a course of physical culture he sailed for England in November 1916, determined to join the Royal Flying Corps. He received training at Denham and Oxford and became a flight instructor in June 1917. He died with a student two months later when their aeroplane crashed at the Netheravon airfield in Bristol.
An early interest in mechanics explained Wall's aptitude as an airman, but he also showed promise as a poet. While at school and university he had taken to writing verse, publishing many in Wesley College's school magazine, The Lion. As a tribute to his skill and character, these were collected as Songs of an Airman in October 1917. A companion volume, Letters of an Airman, was published the following year, containing several poems contained in his correspondence.
