Barnes was born in Mason, NH on July 24, 1904. Like most graduates from Mason at that time, he earned his high school diploma in Townsend, MA in 1922. Barnes played both baseball and basketball, was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, and a member of the Senior Skulls at the University of New Hampshire, where he graduated in 1930.
Barnes was hired in the fall of 1930 to replace Ian Walker. Barnes was Thayer's teacher of manual training and agricultural courses, submaster, director of athletics, and coach of soccer, basketball, and baseball. An "In Memoriam" in the Winchester Annual School Report notes that Barnes was an "ernest and zealous teacher." The same tribute states, "Conscientious in his duties, interested in the welfare of his pupils, serving the community faithfully in every path open to him..." It is mentioned in the Thayer Revue, that Coach Barnes had the biggest feet in the school.
Ernest was survived by a wife, Florence, a son, Charles Leland, who had just turned three, and a daughter Jean Whitney, who was younger than Charles.
