Walton Hannah was born in England in 1912. His father, Ian Campbell Hannah, was a teacher of theology, a writer, and a Member of the British House of Commons 1935-1944. His mother, Edith Brand, was an American and developed an international reputation as a painter. They married in 1905. They collaborated on a number of books (1912-1914, possibly other dates), including The Story of Scotland in Stone, which he wrote and she illustrated.

In the 1930s Walton Hannah became an Anglican priest. He collected documentary and other materials on Freemasonry, with the aim of exposing it as an anti-Christian movement. Although in correspondence he claims never to have been a Freemason, he received correspondence from Freemasons who addressed him as Brother; he also appears to have used pseudonyms to hide his identity as a priest. His interest extended to other secret organizations and the occult in general, and he continued to collect materials on these subjects all his life.

In 1952 his book Darkness Visible: A Revelation and Interpretation of Freemasonry was published by Augustine Press. A second book, Christian by Degrees: Masonic Religion Revealed in the Light of Faith, was published by Augustine Press in 1954. He published a number of articles. In the mid-1950s he converted to Roman Catholicism. In 1956 he attended the Pontifical Collegio Beda, a seminary in Rome intended for converted Anglican clergymen wishing to become Catholic priests. (Beda is a branch of the English College, a seminary for English candidates for Roman Catholic priesthood.) Immediately following ordination as a Catholic priest, Hannah moved to Montreal at the invitation of the archbishop, Paul-Émile Cardinal Léger. He served as parish priest at several parishes, including Church of the Ascension in Westmount and St. Willibrord's in Verdun. He was involved with the Catholic Inquiry Forum. He continued corresponding with Freemasons (some of them aware of his status as a Catholic priest) and others, and assembling related materials. He died in Montreal in February 1966 , and at his request his collection and his papers were donated to Concordia University founding institution Loyola College.