 Before taking up a scholarship to study at University College, Oxford, Sorley spent a little more than six months in Germany from January to July 1914, three months of which were at Schwerin studying the language and local culture.Then he enrolled at the University of Jena, and studied there up to the outbreak of World War I.After Germany declared war on Russia (1 August - Britain declared WAR on Germany 4 August), Sorley was detained for an afternoon in Trier, but was released on the same day and told to leave the country.