One of the Isle of Wight’s top players in the years leading up to the First World War, Ernest Oatley was turning out for Cowes, signed on Hampshire League forms. That did not prevent Southampton registering him, in November 1912, both for Southern League and Southern Alliance matches. When he was promptly given a Fratton Park outing at centre-forward in the latter competition,

the Echo applauded his “abundance of grit,” while regretting that “he found his opportunities limited by the skill and astuteness of the Pompey backs.”

That was the end of his Southampton career. He continued playing on the Island, for one Cowes team or another, well into the 1920s.  Work wise he had become a ship’s painter at Whites Yard during WW1 but by 1921 he was out of work.