Eric was born in July 1920, a childhood friend and neighbour of John Cooper. In the immediate aftermath of the war, the pair decided to build two specials to the newly announced 500cc Rules. Initially they shared the first car (T2) until the second was finished. Eric is often referred to as a Cooper "works" driver although this is not strictly true. John and Eric built the cars for their own fun and and had no contractual relationship. Eric's day job was working for his electrical company in London, Halsey Electric. It was Eric's electrical contacts that allowed the fledgling company to obtain magnetos for their JAP engines. Eric has the honour of winning the first official race for 500cc cars, organised by the VSCC at Gransden Lodge in July 1947. He went on to be highly successful in 500cc Formula 3 and co-founded Ecurie Richmond with Jimmy Richmond and Alan Brown running Cooper 500s and Cooper Bristols in Formula 2.

Eric, exiting the esses at Shelsley Walsh, in his  Prototype Cooper, T3.

Eric at Goodwood, September 1954.

In the mid 50's, Eric funded the construction of his own sports car, the Halseylec, named after his electrical trading company, using an 1,100 climax engine. He raced this through 1955 and early '56.

Shortly after the Halseylec project, Eric changing his interests to hydroplane racing.

Eric Brandon died in August 1982.