 Cordell entered a citywide London music contest and won a "Melody Maker" poll at the age of 17 for the most promising jazz pianist of 1935.This enabled him to secure a job as a sound man in one of the prestigious London Warner Bros. film studios.When World War II broke out Cordell enlisted in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and trained as a radio navigation operator, flying the Vickers Wellington in RAF Bomber Command.