Ernest Gill was educated at the Trade Grammar School in Keighley, from 1896 to 1903. On leaving, at the age of 16, he went to the School of Art in Keighley. He left school in 1908 and took a place at the Royal College of Art until 1912.

His first teaching post was at the Dundee School of Art, where he taught from 1912 to 1919. He went on to teach at the School of Industrial Art in Bristol, during which time he studied for and gained the Certificate for Principles and Practice of School Management. In 1923 he moved to the College of Arts and Crafts, in Sheffield.

He left Sheffield in 1929 to become Headmaster of the South Shields Art School (part of the High School), and taught at the South Shields High School for Boys from September, 1930, through the move to the Harton site, to his retirement in 1950.

He died in Hampshire in 1980.