Ernest Austin Collett was born in Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire, England in October 1867. He was articled to Thomas Graham Jackson (1835-1924) in 1881 and remained with him as as his assistant until 1896. He then worked as an assistant in the Admiralty Works Department at Devonport in Devon in 1896-97, and to Charles Fitzroy Doll (1851-1929) from 1897 to 1904. From 1904 he was architect to the Sledmere Estate in East Yorkshire of Sir Tatton Sykes
Collett was elected a Licentiate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (LRIBA) in 1912. By 1923 he had relocated his practice from Yorkshire to Ninfield, near Battle in Sussex. He was active as an architect until at least the late 1920s. He died in Hailsham, Sussex on 23 September 1956
House at Eddletborpe, Malton; farmhouses at Thirkleby Warren, Sledmere Field, Collingwood, and Fimber Field; school houses at Garton and Wetwang; cottages at Brigham, Wansford, Garton, Sledmere, Thixendale, Kirbygrindalythe, and at Kilham, Nafferton and Watton for the Driffield R.D. Council Housing Scheme; and many farm buildings. [Source: Who's Who in Architecture 1923]
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 1: A-K. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001