Charles Sorley. Charles Hamilton Sorley (May 19, 1895 ?October 13, 1915) was a British poet of World War I. Born in Aberdeen, Scotland, he was educated, like Siegfried Sassoon, at Marlborough College (1908-1913). At Marlborough College Sorley's favourite pursuit was cross-country running in the rain, a theme evident in many of his pre-war poems, including Rain and The Song of the Ungirt Runners. Before taking up a scholarship to study at University College, Oxford , Sorley studied in Schwerin, Germany, up to the outbreak of World War 1. After a brief detention in Trier, Sorley returned to England and volunteered for military service, joining the Suffolk Regiment. He arrived at the Western Front in France as a Lieutenant in May 1915, and quickly rose to the rank of Captain at the age of only twenty. Sorley was killed in action, shot in the head by a sniper, at the Battle of Loos on October 13, 1915.