[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.

[5] Havell worked with Abanindranath Tagore to redefine Indian art education.

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.