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Son of Ernest and Mary Duffield; husband of May Scott Duffield, of Durban, Natal, South Africa. Described by a journalist as "one of the most remarkable men in the State", Ernie Duffield was a well-known musician. In his youth, he was taught piano and organ at the Bunbury convent before emigrating to South Africa for many years, where he played the organ in the largest cathedral in South Africa. Ernie was also the local champion lightweight boxer for some time both here and in Johannesburg and a world-class champion jockey who rode in South Africa for the 'diamond king' Abe Bailey. Ernie moved to Johannesburg, and in 1905, he became a trainer, at which he was also successful, as well as still riding. Around the same time, Ernie started publishing "South African Sporting Life" which was a weekly journal that, according to a newspaper article was "a bright journal, cleverly written, and with the pen wielded by one that has been right in the thick of the game in Boerland for so many years." During the First World War, Ernie fought with the South African Forces in German East Africa, and due to injuries from that campaign, he mainly confined himself to stage work. His son, Ernie, also a jockey and well-known race caller in South Africa, recalled this post-wartime in his biography "Through My Binoculars": "My father Ernie was a very successful jockey, but when he returned from the war he had taken to drink. He was not riding after the war but he would go out each day and come back in the evening, always with money in his pocket but under the weather. It turned out he was playing piano for money in the Ranch Hotel" |
