The son of Sidney Albert Worrall (1880-1978; e.m. 1904), he was born on 28 January 1912. He had a distinguished academic and educational career, interrupted by World War II, during which he worked as a conscientious objector in the Yorkshire Coal-mines. He was a lifelong local preacher. After teaching at Leeds Grammar School, he held headships in Birkenhead and Gloucester, before being appointed headmaster of Methodist College, Belfast in 1961, where for 13 years he led the school with unbroken success. He served the Irish Conference and the Irish Council of Churches, and after retirement was elected Chairman of the Northern Ireland Arts Council. In 1974 with other churchmen he met with the IRA to persuade them to call a ceasefire. He was co-author of Christians in Ulster 1968-1980 and, with Cardinal Daly, of a book on the Ballymascanlon inter-church conferences. He wrote the report of the working party on 'Violence in Ulster'. Moving to Birmingham in 1983, he did much translation work from French and German, including Crouzel's book on Origen. He died on 15 November 1991.
His wife Mary Frances Worrall (1910-2005) was the daughter of Ernest Marshall (1878-1957; e.m. 1905). She was a teacher and local preacher and a Guide Commissioner in both Northern Ireland and England. During their time in Northern Ireland she was a member of the Churches Council for Health and Healing and chaired the committee of the Ecumenical Council of the whole of Ireland. One of their daughters is Professor Frances.M. Young. Their son Peter was the leading cellist in the Hallé Orchestra for many years.