Ernest John Gane was born in Pontllanfraith nr Blackwood in 1926. During WW2 Earnest served in the Fleet Air Arm aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable in the British Pacific Fleet. In May 1945 HMS Formidable was targeted by Japanese Kamikaze attacks where the young pilots of the Japanese Air Force deliberately and violently crashed their aircraft into the ship, in a suicidal attempt to cause the maximum damage possible.

Post-war and back in civilian-life Ernest became a master butcher eventually setting up a food distribution business in Newport. He died aged 55yrs old in 1981. In 2024, Ernest's youngest son, Ian, asked Age Cymru Dyfed to find out more about his late father's wartime service. All Ian had to drawn upon was a photograph album containing his father's pictures taken during the war.

The written description which accompanies Ernest's wartime photographs was prepared by Hugh Morgan of Age Cymru Dyfed and includes research undertaken into Ernest's experience of WW2.