Sir Edward James Gent KCMG DSO OBE MC (28 October 1895 – 4 July 1948) was the first appointed Governor of the Malayan Union in 1946.

Gent served with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in the First World War in Flanders and Italy.

He was an instrumental figure in the formation of the Malayan Union, which was established on 1 April 1946 in Kuala Lumpur.

He was sacked by the Colonial Office and recalled to London on 29 June 1948 at the onset of the Malayan Emergency after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Commissioner-General for Southeast Asia, lobbied Whitehall.

Gent was only forced to widen the declaration to the whole of Malaya the next day when the Straits Times wrote "Govern or Get Out" on its front page, thus galvanising public sentiment against him.