The son of Frank and Mary Sorel, of Elizabeth Lane, St Helier. At the time of joining the Army he worked for a coal merchant.

Called 'Frank', in March 1915 he took part in a Jersey Company concert in Donneraile, playing the concertina. After training in Ireland and Aldershot, he went to the front in December 1915 and undertook a trench-building course in March the following year. When back in the trenches at the end of that month, he was seriously wounded in the left-side and abdomen. Conditions meant he had to walk several miles for treatment at an Advanced Dressing Station before being transferred to the 33rd Casualty Clearing Station at Bethune and then on to a Newcastle Hospital. For the next fourteen months, he was under treatment or convalescing. Unable to fully recover, he was finally discharged from the Army in May 1917.