Eric Bessell

{{short description|Australian politician}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}

{{Use Australian English|date=August 2016}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific-prefix =

| name = Eric Bessell

| honorific-suffix =

| image = Eric Bessell (cropped).jpg

| caption = Bessell in 1974

| title = Senator for Tasmania

| term_start = 18 May 1974

| term_end = 11 November 1975

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1923|6|6}}

| birth_place = Launceston, Tasmania, Australia

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1979|3|10|1923|6|6}}

| death_place = Rocky Cape, Tasmania, Australia

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| spouse =

| party = Liberal

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}}

Eric James Bessell (6 June 1923 – 10 March 1979) was an Australian politician. Born in Launceston, Tasmania, he was a pastoralist before serving in the Australian Army as a private during World War II.{{Cite web |title=World War Two Service |url=https://nominal-rolls.dva.gov.au/veteran?id=786458&c=WW2#R |access-date=6 March 2021 |website=Australian Government – Department of Veteran's Affairs}} He served as President of the Tasmanian Liberal Party in 1966 and 1973. In 1974, he was elected to the Australian Senate as a Liberal Senator for Tasmania.{{Cite Au Senate |Sen id=bessell-eric-james |name=BESSELL, Eric James (1923–1979) |first=Scott |last=Bennett |access-date=29 November 2022}} He was defeated in 1975 after being demoted to sixth place on the ballot paper to make way for real estate agent Brian Archer and nurse Shirley Walters. Bessell died in 1979.{{cite web|last=Carr |first=Adam |title=Australian Election Archive |work=Psephos, Adam Carr's Election Archive |url=http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/a/australia |year=2008 |access-date=2008-11-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070717093439/http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/a/australia/ |archive-date=17 July 2007 |df=dmy }}