Ernest was born on 6 June 1893 in Bedford, Bedfordshire, the fourth of seven children of William and Eliza Jane (née Abraham) Dyer and named Frederick Ernest Dyer though he joined the RN as Ernest Frederick with a birth date of 26 June 1891. The father William served many years in the British army with the children’s births recorded as Annie K (1888) Ireland, Edith M (1890) and Arthur J (1892) India and Dorothy (1900), Francis Hilda (1901) and Percy (1905) in Hertfordshire England.

Ernest joined the Royal Navy when he was actually only 14 years and 4 months old when he walked through the gates of HMS GANGES the boy training establishment at Shotley, Suffolk on 7 October 1907 and signed on as a Boy Second Class. On 8 February 1908 he had a move to HMS IMPREGNABLE, the boy training ship in Devonport dockyard, Devon and was advanced to Boy First Class on 1 May 1908, with a draft to HMS CRESSY on 17 November. He then joined HMS CHARYBDIS on 20 January 1909, and on 13 February he had a draft to HMS SAPPHIRE and was rated up to Ordinary Seaman on 26 June 1909.

He was drafted to HMS PEMBROKE 1 on 15 February 1910 and to HMS BULWARK  on 1 March where he was advanced to Able Seaman on 21 April 1911. He returned to PEMBROKE 1 on 25 April 1911. Drafts followed on 6 May to HMS ACTAEON, 31 October 1911 to HMS St GEORGE, 15 April 1912 back to PEMBROKE 1, 20 April to HMS THAMES, 15 October to HMS BONAVENTURE, 12 November 1912 to HMS CORMORANT and a return to BONAVENTURE on 17 September 1913 before joining HMS FORTH on 22 October 1913 for HMS A7.

At 1110 on 16 January 1914 in Whitesand Bay, A7 dived to carry out a dummy attack on HMS PYGMY. She never surfaced and it took six days to find her on the sea bed. The hull was intact and planes hard to rise with her stern in the sand and bow 10 feet above at an approx 30 degree angle, with all eleven crew members entombed in her final resting place.

Able Seaman Ernest Frederick Dyer, aged 20, Svc No. 239725, had “Crossed The Bar” with 10 of his fellow shipmates.