Born at Malton, Yorkshire, the eldest surviving son of Dr William Tayler Colby, JP, of New Malton. The Colby family had practised for three generations at Malton, and their journeys covered so wide, and in winter so bleak, a district over the high wolds that they could only be made on horseback. Ernest Colby was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School at Old Malton, and matriculated at Oxford as a Science Exhibitioner of Wadham College on January 24th, 1879. He was placed in the 2nd class in the Natural Science Honours School in 1882. He entered St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he gained the open Entrance Scholarship in Science in 1883, the Junior Scholarship in Anatomy and Physiology in 1884, and the Brackenbury Scholarship in Surgery in 1888. He afterwards held the posts of House Surgeon to Alfred Willett (qv) and Ophthalmic House Surgeon to Henry Power (qv) and Bowater J Vernon (qv). He subsequently studied at Würzburg. He joined his father in practice at The Mount, Malton, in 1890; the partnership continued until December, 1912, when William Tayler Colby died and was replaced by William Vernon Shaw, MA MB Oxon. Ernest Colby was the chief promoter of the Malton Cottage Hospital, to which he was appointed the first Surgeon; he also acted as Medical Officer of Health to the Malton Union Sanitary Authority. He served as President of the Yorkshire Medical Society in 1905-6. In August, 1912, he had a severe attack of septicaemia for which he was treated at Leeds and was sent to convalesce at Colwyn Bay, where he died on March 5th, 1913. He married in 1899 a daughter of the Rev J H Mandell, Vicar of Haydon Bridge, Northumberland, and left two sons and three daughters.