Eric Henry Halstead CBE ED (26 May 1912 – 18 June 1991) was a New Zealand politician of the National Party and later a diplomat.

[citation needed] While a student he had his first involvement in politics after being invited to hear National Party MP Gordon Coates speak in 1938.

[3] He was a liberal within the National Party and, alongside North Shore MP Dean Eyre, he supported the alternative drainage scheme in Auckland proposed by Dove-Myer Robinson.

[1] Halstead remained an active member of the National Party well after his defeat, despite not wishing to re-enter parliament by standing in Tamaki again.

[2] In 1989, a book put together by Halstead, entitled Freyberg's Men, was refused permission to be published by the New Zealand Government because it bore too close a resemblance to copyright material originally published by the New Zealand Army Board and War History Branch, Department of Internal Affairs.