Charles Hamilton Sorley

Born in Aberdeen in 1895, Charles Hamilton Sorley was educated at Marlborough College and later spent time in Germany before the First World War. That experience sharpened his sense of Europe beyond national slogans, and his writing would become known for its honesty, intelligence, and lack of easy patriotism.

When war began, he joined the Suffolk Regiment and served as an army officer. He was killed at the Battle of Loos in France on October 13, 1915, when he was only 20 years old.

Sorley left behind far fewer poems than better-known war poets, but his reputation has endured because of their directness and emotional weight. His poems and letters continue to be read as some of the most clear-eyed writing to come out of the war.