Ernest Walter J Barlow born on August 4, 1899, in Granville, New South Wales, into one of the most influential footballing families in the country.
His father, Frederick, then 33, was the founding father of the Granville FA, the country’s oldest, established in 1900. Barlow senior also became the first promoter of junior football in schools. The Fred Barlow Medal became the most sought after prize in junior football in its day. Frederick would also become the first president of the Commonwealth Soccer Football Association of Australia in 1922.
Ernest, the youngest of three by some 12 years, was a joiner’s apprentice playing as a fullback with the Granville Rechabites club and enlisted shortly after turning 18 in May of 1918 and was posted to the 5th Training Battalion in Fovant in Wiltshire just a week after the Armistice was signed.
He returned to Australia in September the following year and married Lillie Murray in 1920 in Boorowa New South Wales. They had two children during their marriage. He died on January 31, 1971, in New South Wales, at the age of 71.