In Kelm, Eliyahu was a diligent student, and would receive semicha (Rabbinic ordination) from his uncle, Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, who would be the spiritual leader of Orthodox Lithuanian Jewry until his death in 1939 and rarely granted ordinations.
After the death of his stepmother in 1928, Rabbi Dessler was forced to accompany his father to London for medical treatment, and decided to remain in the United Kingdom.