Ernest Procter was born in Tynemouth, Northumberland into a Quaker family. He trained at Leeds Art School and then under Stanhope Forbes in Newlyn, where he met the artist Doris ‘Dod’ Shaw. They furthered their studies at the Académie Colarossi in Paris and married in 1912; Dod was thereafter known by her married name and their son Bill was born the following year.
The couple worked and exhibited together, most significantly on the decoration of the Kokine Palace, Rangoon, Burma in 1919-20 and in joint exhibitions held at The Fine Art Society and the Leicester Galleries in 1913 and 1926 respectively.
Following the Procters’ return from Burma, Ernest established an art school in Newlyn with Harold Harvey (1874-1971), which they ran until the mid-1920s. Procter played a leading role in the Cornish art world, whilst maintaining a high profile in London. He was a member of the St Ives Society of Arts and Newlyn Society of Artists, joined the New English Art Club in 1929 and was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Academy three years later. He was best known for the allegorical figure compositions and landscapes which were regularly shown in group exhibitions such as those at the Royal Glasgow Institute, Royal Hibernian Academy and the International Society of Sculptors, Painters & Gravers. In 1934, Procter was appointed Director of Studies in Design and Craft at Glasgow School of Art, but he died the following year. Memorial exhibitions were mounted at the Leicester Galleries and Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle.
In line with his religious beliefs, Procter declared himself a conscientious objector on the outbreak of World War One. The Friends' Ambulance Unit was established soon afterwards by a group of young Quakers, as a means for civilian volunteers to contribute to the war effort in a non-violent way. The Unit travelled to Dunkirk in October 1914 under the auspices of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John of Jerusalem. Procter’s personnel records reveal that he joined it on 11 April 1916, arrived in Dunkirk on 12 June 1916 and served until his demobilisation on 2 February 1919. His duties included care of the wounded, ambulance maintenance and quartermaster tasks. He also designed and decorated Red Cross huts and camp entertainment, whilst recording his experiences in sketches, drawings and paintings as circumstances permitted.
Towards the end of the war, Procter applied to the Ministry of Information for a permit to depict the work of the Red Cross on the Western Front. He was engaged under Scheme 3 of the British War Memorials Committee, whereby in return for facilities, Procter was to offer the first option on all the work he made to the committee, with no salary or expenses. His permit was granted in November 1918. This gave him just a few months before demobilisation to produce the work he carried out for the Royal Army Medical Corps section and was presented for approval in February 1919; six watercolours were acquired and are now in the collection of the Imperial War Museum. They are held alongside a significant number of Procter’s World War One drawings and one of his sketchbooks from the period.
Procter was to develop the narrative richness, orchestration of complex figure groups and skilful use of colour seen in this work in further major paintings created after his return to Cornwall, including On the Beach at Newlyn, 1919 and Cornish Beach Scene, c.1922, both in private collections. His work is held in numerous public collections.