Ernest Christian Sommerlad CBE (30 January 1886 – 6 September 1952) was an Australian politician. He was born in Tenterfield to farmer John Henry Sommerlad. He was educated at until the age of eleven, when he left to work on the family farm. Sommerlad read extensively in his spare time and continued to educate himself. Bible texts were of particular interest. Aged 21, he attended Newington College where he was conspicuous amongst his much younger schoolfellows. Despite this peculiar situation he passed the junior public examination in 1908. Following that he was accepted as a candidate for the Methodist ministry. The Wesleyan Theological Institution was then still based on the Newington campus and so he remained a student at Stanmore. After a period as a missionary in Fiji in 1911, he bec