Australian Dictionary of Biography

Ernie Sly, 1950s

Sly family

Ernest Edwin Sly (1924–1999), soldier, scout leader, Salvation Army officer, and community worker, was born on 23 February 1924 at Marrickville, Sydney, son of New South Wales-born Dorriel Marguerite Sly. Ernie’s father’s name was not recorded on his birth certificate, but Sly believed his name was Marshall, a butcher of Kingston, Federal Capital Territory. Sly’s early life was difficult. ‘I was abandoned by both mother and father … as a ward of the State as my parents could not afford to keep me,’ he recalled (1986). Between stints at the Boys’ Home, Glebe, and in the care of foster families at Hurstville and Enfield, he lived briefly at Strathfield with his mother and stepfather, James Little, and his mother’s sister Muriel who he credited with hiding him from welfare officers and caring for him in his early years. Aged about thirteen, he stayed with his maternal grandparents at Campsie and helped in their butcher’s shop, before working as a painter, then at a piggery at Glossodia, and at Steward’s shoe store, Parramatta.

On 18 March 1942 Sly enlisted in the Citizen Military Forces and transferred to the Australian Imperial Force in June 1943. While posted to Western Australia, on 20 November 1943, with Church of England rites he married locally born Jamsie Elizabeth Horley, a member of the Australian Women’s Army Service, at Midland Junction. He served in salvage units in Australia until 1945 when, as a member of the 1st Armoured Brigade Salvage Unit, he supported the landings on Tarakan Island (1 May) and Balikpapan (1 July), Borneo, Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia). Back in Western Australia from November, he was demobilised on 26 June 1946.

Sly worked as a painter and decorator before enlisting in the Australian Regular Army on 31 October 1947. Based in Perth, he served in Western Australia and briefly (1949–50) at Woomera, South Australia, with units of the Royal Australian Engineers, except for twelve months (1953–54) when he was an instructor with the 17th National Service Training Battalion. As a temporary sergeant (substantive 1959), he was posted in 1957 to the instructional staff of the School of Military Engineering, Sydney, where his family joined him from Perth. In 1961 he was transferred to Area Command, Puckapunyal, Victoria, as an assistant on the firing range. A typical assessment of his capability during this period concluded: ‘Reliable, capable and thorough, this NCO is keen and tries hard’ (NAA B2458).

In 1964 Sly was posted to headquarters, Northern Territory Command, Darwin, as assistant clerk of works and construction, in the rank of staff sergeant. A basketball team he formed there with Aboriginal men who worked as grounds staff on the base competed in the Darwin men’s A-grade competition. He formed the army walking team that won the teams category of the NT News twenty-five kilometre ‘Walkabout’ for three consecutive years, and in his own right won the veterans individual category (1964–66).

From 1966 Sly performed staff duties at Army Headquarters, Canberra, where he was promoted to temporary warrant officer, class two (1967). Posted to the Republic of (South) Vietnam in June 1968, he served as clerk of works with the 1st Australian Civil Affairs Unit for twelve months, directing the building of windmills, schools, market buildings, fences, and medical dispensaries. On many of his earlier postings Sly had contributed to local boy scout troops, either as scout master or group scout master of 1st Moorebank, 1st Puckapunyal, 1st Darwin, and Capital Hill, Canberra. He continued the practice in Vietnam, where his commanding officer gave him permission to ‘do scouting’ in his own time, with one condition: ‘“don’t get your fool head shot off”’ (Sly 1988). Sly established a thriving scout unit at Ba Ria, Phuoc Tuy Province, and received an award from the Vietnam Boy Scouts Association in recognition of his work.

Sly returned to Army Headquarters, Canberra, but was discharged from the army at his own request on 26 May 1970, intending to go into business house painting and glazing. Since 1949, with encouragement from his wife, Sly had been an active member of the Salvation Army, with which he served at Seymour, Victoria; Darwin; Cooma and Yass in New South Wales; and Belconnen and Canberra City in the Australian Capital Territory. He and Jamsie were commissioned as Salvation Army divisional envoys in 1981 and appointed to Cooma where they served for two years, with Ernie conducting weekly Sunday services at the local prison. On their return to Canberra he was appointed workshop manager at the Salvation Army’s Rehabilitation Services Centre, then as manager of the youth centre where he was involved with alcohol and drug rehabilitation.

Continuing scouting through this phase of his life, in 1985 Sly was appointed leader of the Bundeela group, Australian Capital Territory. In April 1989 the Scout Association of Australia awarded him the Bar to the Long Service Decoration in recognition of his twenty-five years of service as a leader. For service to the community, particularly the rehabilitation of drug and alcohol dependent people, he was awarded the OAM in 1988. He had been a member of the Masonic Lodge from 1953, and for more than thirty years volunteered for Legacy, providing support to war widows and their families.

Sly neither drank alcohol nor swore; he enjoyed recreational fishing when he found time and was well known for his firm handshake and quirky saying ‘sufferin’ blinkin’ dingbats,’ made popular by the stage and radio comedian Roy Rene in the 1940s. He died at Fraser on 11 October 1999. His funeral service was conducted at the ANZAC Memorial Chapel of St Paul, Royal Military College, Duntroon, and his remains interred at the Hall cemetery. He was survived by Jamsie and their children, Judith, James, and Susan.