The eldest of eight children, with four brothers and three sisters, he was forced to leave school at 13 years of age after his father had been killed the day before in a road accident.

Serving as a private soldier, fighting on the streets in the brief and bloody 17-day battle for Singapore (which ended in the ignominious surrender of the Island – the 'fortress that never was[1]'), he was wounded in action and taken Prisoner of War on the 15 February 1942.

Saved from virtually certain death by the timely dropping of the Atom Bomb on Japan, which led to the almost immediate unconditional surrender of the Japanese.

Ernest was haunted by his years in captivity all his life and was confined to a wheelchair as a direct result of brutal torture and ill-treatment at the hands of the Japanese in the grim jungle death camps alongside the River Kwai.

Ernest intervened by striking the guard, which subsequently resulted in him being punished by being roped to a tree for 5 days and 5 nights[4] without food or water.

They threatened to behead Ernest by a sword, but changed their minds and instead sentenced him to 28 days in a metal tomb at the Japanese punishment centre.