Edward Walter Perera (11 December 1875 – 15 February 1953) was a Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) barrister, politician and freedom fighter.

[1] During the First World War, in 1915 commercial and ethnic rivalries erupted into riots throughout British Ceylon by Buddhists and Christians against Muslims.

Fearing a possible uprising, the inexperienced Governor of Ceylon Sir Robert Chalmers declared martial law on 2 June 1915 and on the advice of Inspector General Herbert Dowbiggin began to suppress the riots by issuing orders to the colonial police and military to summarily execute anyone they deemed to be a rioter.

Dias Bandaranaike, H. W. Amarasuriya and A.H. Molamure were imprisoned and Captain D.E.Henry Pedris, a militia commander, was executed on the charge of mutiny.

Abandoning a promising career at the Bar, Perera undertook the task of going over to England by obtaining permission saying he was going to do some research in the British Museum.

It was also Perera who with the help of D. R. Wijewardena, the press baron (grandfather of current president of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickramasinghe) traced the location of the banner of last King Sri Vikrama Rajasinghe, the last king of the Kingdom of Kandy to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, where it had been kept since the surrender of the Kingdom to the British in 1815.