Sir Ernest Scott (21 June 1867 – 6 December 1939) was an Australian historian and professor of history at the University of Melbourne from 1913 to 1936.

[1] Ernest Scott was educated at St Katherine's Church of England School, Northampton and worked as a journalist on the London Globe.

[1] In 1892 Scott (who began to call himself Besant-Scott at his wife's insistence) migrated to Australia, where he joined the staff of The Herald newspaper, edited the Austral Theosophist and lectured.

Around 1896 Mabel converted to Roman Catholicism and became estranged from her husband, although they continued nominal cohabitation.

On 25 May in Melbourne, Scott married to Bendigo-born Emily Illinden Fortuna, sister of Edward Dyason.

Future professors of history who passed through Scott's school included (Sir) Keith Hancock, Fred Alexander, Marnie Bassett, (Sir) Stephen Henry Roberts, Manning Clark, N. D. Harper[1] and A. G. B. Fisher of Christchurch.

As a teacher he was interesting, vivid and inspiring, exacting hard work from his students and insisting on the value of original documents, while also pointing out that even they cannot be blindly accepted.