Ernie Taylor was playing local football in his native Liverpool, while working for the American Line, the Philadelphia shipping company. In 1893, this company, which owned “the largest and fastest ships in the world, shocked Liverpool,” according to Bernard Knowles in his Southampton: the English Gateway, “by transferring their New York mail service to Southampton.” Ernie was part of that transfer. He found that he could get a game, as an amateur, with St Mary’s and, even as the side was strengthened for the start of the Southern League, he could still hold his own among seasoned professionals.

Mainly a half-back, Ernie made his debut at left-back and would play in the Saints’ inaugural Southern League match in that position. But, then, his versatility was a major asset: he could deploy,

the Echo observed, “a great variety of methods; he plays a defensive as well as offensive game with equal success.”

The problem was the work commitments that sometimes made him unavailable. This caused a degree of friction with some of his professional team-mates, to the extent that Ernie decided, after three seasons with the Saints, that he’d rather be an amateur with Freemantle. And yet he did get to play twice more for the Saints. In order to fulfill a United League fixture at Tottenham on 24 March 1898, the club needed 10 outfield replacements for the men who had played in an FA Cup semi-final replay the day before.

Taylor was borrowed from Freemantle to make up those numbers. The scratch side lost 7-0. Ernie completed his loan, six days later, when he scored against Rushden, at The Dell, in the same competition. His involvement in local sport was considerable: he was a cricketer with Deanery; a committee-member at Stoneham Golf Club; and he represented Hampshire at rugby, as well as football. And, as the chairman of the White Star Line Sports Association, he was one of the founders, in 1899, of the annual football match to raise funds for the Seaman’s Orphanage. He continued in that role until he retired in 1934. He had remained with the AmericanLine and the White Star Line, becoming chief cashier in 1922, until the merger with Cunard, in 1934.