[1][2] Ernest was born at Jesse Terrace, Reading in the English county of Berkshire in 1861,[3] the son of an artist Charles Richard Havell and his wife, Charlotte Amelia Lord.

[4] In India, Havell initially served the Madras School of Art as Superintendent for a decade from 1884.

In January 1906 he left for England on long leave and finally in 1908, he was removed from the post.

He was involved in founding the India Society along with William Rothenstein in 1910 as a reaction to negative remarks made by Sir George Birdwood on Indian art.

[4] He married Angelique Wilhelmina Jacobsen, daughter of a Danish navy officer in 1895 at St Giles, London, Middlesex, England.