He was the son of Henry Horace Gorrell, an opera singer and voice teacher, and Mercedes Beatrice Leese.
Gorrell was a reporter for the Kansas City Journal-Post in 1929, before joining United Press in 1930,[1] working with Richard D. McMillan.
[1][2] Gorrell was part of the United Press staff in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War, where he was acquainted with Ernest Hemingway.
[6] Gorrell followed the British army to North Africa and Palestine and finally he covered a very obscure aspect of World War II, the revolt of Iraq.
In his memoir, he mentions some personal statements of some local British commanders who accepted that their stronghold in Habaniya was surrounded by thousands of armed Arabs aided by some German planes without a hope to stand.