Ernest Kirsner was born in Melbourne, the oldest of three boys, his parents having migrated from London. Matriculating at Scotch College, he began a science course at Melbourne University, transferred to medicine and graduated in 1921. His father having died prematurely, Ernest assumed responsibility early in his life, helping his mother support the family in his undergraduate and early postgraduate days.

His first medical practice was as solo GP in the small South Australian town of Morgan. An early interest in ENT disease encouraged by an Adelaide specialist who befriended him, Dr Matison, was frustrated by his inability to secure the appointment at Melbourne Eye and Ear Hospital when he could have taken the time for the training required. In the late 1920s he moved to a practice in Benalla and in 1934, after his marriage, succeeded Dr Harwood Osborne in the Finch Street, Malvern, practice where he worked until his retirement in 1975. His medical skills, quiet unassuming manner, reliability and empathy with his patients, soon made his a busy general practice and he was widely respected by his patients and in the community where he lived and worked. During the Second World War he was required to remain at his work and cared for a nearby practice while his colleague was on military service.

Ernest was a scholar by nature and was always anxious to upgrade his skills, he studied while carrying on in his busy practice and became a Member of the College in 1938, soon after graduating MD (Melbourne). For many years he was an assistant in the medical outpatients department at the Melbourne Hospital as it then was, working first in Keith Fairley's clinic and later with Jock Frew after Dr Fairley moved indoors.

Throughout his life, Ernest maintained a lively interest in biblical history and in archaeology, accumulating an extensive library. He was an active member of the Victorian Archaeological Society. It was a disappointment to him that he was unable to participate, when the opportunity presented itself, at a dig at Masada in southern Israel in the late 1940s. He was a regular attender at AMA meetings and, when he was able to do so, at College meetings, being always anxious to update his medical knowledge and skills. The writer recalls watching him take a history and make the examination in the busy outpatient department as a part of the learning experience of a student in the early clinical years and being taught the art of percussion by Ernest. After his retirement he worked in the insurance field for a few years. Parkinson's disease increasingly incapacitated him and he was unable to take his customary walks in the nearby Botanical Gardens. He was comforted by his love of music however and enjoyed his extensive record collection.