Ernest Gill came from a cricketing family. His father, John, had played for Leicestershire, while his older brother, George, would aggregate over 170 first-class appearances, playing for their native county plus Somerset and London County.When it came to football, George would get to play in one friendly for the Saints, a record that Ernest would better, in so far as he featured in one Southern League game. Ernest, who had represented Somerset at football and played briefly for Grimsby Town’s Reserves, came to that solitary game for Southampton as a trialist at right-back.

Although the local press judged his performance to be “none too pleasing”, he was offered terms.

He declined owing to a misunderstanding apparently and soon joined Freemantle in the Southampton Senior League. At the end of the 1900-01 season, however, he returned to Leicestershire, both as a footballer and cricketer. Having played five games for his county in the summer of 1901 – which would be the extent of his first-class cricket experience – Ernest had made only one first-team appearance for Leicester Fosse, of the Football League’s Division II, in 1901-02 when he sustained a career-ending broken leg in a Reserves match. He later became a football trainer but, by 1911, he was a groundsman in Hull. During WW1 he became a plater’s helper at Earles Ship Builders on the Humber and was still there in 1939.