Background
Gorell was the eldest son of Henry Barnes, a shipowner of Liverpool, and was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge.
Gorell was the eldest son of Henry Barnes, a shipowner of Liverpool, and was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge.
Peterhouse.
Where he took his degree in 1868. He began work as a solicitor, but was called to the Bar in 1876 and became a Queen"s Counsel in 1888. He was well known as an expert in Admiralty cases, and in 1892 was made a Judge of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice, and its president from 1905 (on the retirement of Sir Francis Jeune (Lord Street Helier)) until 1909.
He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1905 and in 1909 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Gorell, of Brampton in the County of Derby.
Lord Gorell married Mary, daughter of Thomas Mitchell, in 1881.