Eric Herbert Pearce was born on 5 March 1905 and grew up in
Hampshire, England. He completed his studies at
London University. Pearce worked for an insurance company and was transferred to Canada. Pearce returned to England in 1937. Pearce moved to Australia in 1938. In September 1939 in
Sydney, Pearce was engaged to Jean Mary Macartney (1909–1956), and married later that year. By 1942 they were living in Melbourne. During World War 2, on 17 January 1942, Pearce enrolled in the
Royal Australian Air Force and was discharged as a
Flying Officer on 29 December that year. In 1962 Pearce compiled a book,
Thoughts for Everyday Living: Philosophies and Poetry, for the 75th Year Jubilee Building Appeal of the
Queen Victoria Hospital. He had selected various poems, quotations and maxims. and he had a step-daughter, Suzanne Constance Pearce. His third wife died in 1987. Sir Eric Pearce died on 12 April 1997, aged 92, in a
Malvern nursing home. Pearce worked at numerous radio stations in the pre-television era, he had started at
2CH as an announcer upon arriving in Sydney from England. Upon relocating to Melbourne in 1940 he worked at
3XY in radio drama and as a studio manager. From April 1950 he was general manager of
5KA in
Adelaide until October 1954 when he returned to Sydney. In August that year Pearce described the new medium of television, "It's the most potent force for good or evil that's ever been discovered in the communications field of entertainment."
The Argus reviewer
F. Keith Manzie described Melbourne's first TV broadcast "I liked Eric Pearce as a compere. His easy-mannered, genial personality came right through the viewing screen in the quiz show, ''I've Got a Secret
... [his] reading of the news was illustrated with appropriate newsreel shots". In 1956 he was also co-host of the series Eric and Mary, and in 1957 he was host of Be My Guest. Pearce resigned from HSV-7 in the late 1950s. He believed that newsreaders required credibility and that doing anything other than news for a job was ill-advised. When GTV Channel 9 offered him employment as chief news reader without him having to do any other shows, he took it. In 1961, he appeared in Let Me Read to You'', in which he would read from popular works. Typically Pearce read the news to Melburnians with his catchphrase sign-off, "God bless you, and you", Betty. He is best regarded for his coverage of the
Moon landing in July 1969. In 1978 Pearce retired and was replaced as GTV Channel 9 newsreader by
Brian Naylor. In 1993 he was still working for GTV Channel 9 as a news adviser and head of correspondence, although his official title was Director of Community Affairs. Both
Peter Mitchell (
Seven News Melbourne) and
Peter Hitchener (
Nine News Melbourne) acknowledge Pearce as "one of their biggest influences. They both worked under him at Channel 9". ==Private life==