Ernest Petter

Sir Ernest Willoughby Petter (26 May 1873 – 18 July 1954 ) was an English industrialist and unsuccessful politician.

Biography Ernest and Percival Waddams Petter (1873–1955) were identical twins born on 26 May 1873 in High Street, Yeovil, Somerset. They were the third and fourth of the fifteen children born to James Bazeley Petter, an ironmonger and iron founder, of Yeovil, and his wife, Charlotte Waddams. The twins initially attended school in Sherborne, then went to Yeovil Grammar School before being sent off to Mount Radford School, Exeter, at age 14. They left school in 1890 and began apprenticing with their father. The vehicle weighed 9 cwt (457 kg) including the 120 lb (55 kg) of the Petter engine with its flywheel and side bars.

The brothers co-founded the Yeovil Motor Car Co. Ltd. in 1895 with their father, making two-person motor carriages. However, the venture was not commercially viable, and the company transitioned to making engines for industrial and agricultural customers. Ernest and Percy then proceeded to purchase the company from their father in 1901, and restructured it into James B Petter & Sons, both serving as managing directors. After visiting relatives in Comox Valley on the east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, he decided to build a large manor house (named "The Fort") in the town of Comox, which was completed in 1938. He then lived for a while in Saanich (just outside the provincial capital of Victoria) before moving back to the UK in 1954.

He fought the 1931 Westminster St George's by-election as an Independent Conservative opposed to Stanley Baldwin's leadership of the Conservative Party. Though he claimed to be free of party and running at the request of the electors, he was strongly backed by the Beaverbrook and Rothermere papers, including the Daily Express and Daily Mail. He was defeated by the official Conservative, Duff Cooper.