John Dover Wilson was born in London on 13 July 1881. His father, Edwin Wilson, was a scientific artist. He was educated at Lancing College and he studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, graduating with degrees of BA in 1903, and MA 1908. In 1906, Wilson married Dorothy Baldwin, daughter of the late Canon Baldwin, Harston, Cambridgeshire.

Wilson was an assistant master at Whitgift Grammar School, 1904-1905, and then an English lector in Finland, at the University of Helsinki (then Helsingfors), 1906-1909. From 1909 until 1912 he was a lecturer in English language and literature at Goldsmiths' College, University of London, and from 1912 until 1924 he was on His Majesty's Inspectorate (an HMI) for adult education and continuation schools. In 1924 he became Professor of Education in the University of London, King's College. Also, between 1927 and 1929 he was editor of the Journal of Adult Education. From 1935, Professor Wilson held the chair of Rhetoric and English Literature at Edinburgh University, a post which he held until 1945.

He was also a Trustee of Shakespeare's Birthplace from 1931, and a Trustee of the National Library of Scotland from 1946. Professor John Dover Wilson was made a Companion of Honour in 1936.

His publications include: Life in Shakespeare's England (1911); with others, The war and democracy (1914); with others, Shakespeare's hand in the play of Sir Thomas More (1923); The essential Shakespeare (1932); What happens in Hamlet (1935);The fortunes of Falstaff (1943); A. W. Pollard: a memoir (1948) Shakespeare's happy comedies (1962); and, Shakespeare's sonnets: an introduction for historians and others (1963). He was also the chief editor of The New Shakespeare, Cambridge University Press, 1921-1969.

Professor John Dover Wilson died on 15 January 1969. He had lived in Balerno, Edinburgh.