Charles Hamilton Sorley was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. In 1908 he attended Marlborough College, where his favourite sport was cross-country running. He then went to Germany, where he spent three months at Schwerin studying German language and culture before he enrolled at the University of Jena.
At the beginning of World War I, Sorley was forced to leave the Germany. He returned to England and volunteered for military service. He arrived at the Western Front in France in May 1915, and quickly rose to the rank of captain. In October of 1915 he was killed in action near Hulluch in the Battle of Loos.
In 1916, his sole work was published posthumously.
