Sir Eric Clare Edmund Phipps GCB GCMG GCVO PC (27 October 1875 – 13 August 1945) was a British diplomat.
Phipps was the son of Sir Constantine Phipps, later British Ambassador to Belgium, and his wife Maria Jane (née Miller Mundy). Henry Phipps, 1st Earl of Mulgrave, was his great-grandfather, and he was also a great-grandson of Lieutenant-General Sir Colin Campbell, who was present at the Battle of Waterloo, and of Rear-Admiral Sir John Hindmarsh, who was a Lieutenant on HMS Phoebe at the Battle of Trafalgar - making him probably the first person to be descended from officers who fought at both battles. As a child, he accompanied his parents around Europe to his father's various postings, and was educated at King's College, Cambridge, and the University of Paris, from which he graduated.
He passed the competitive examination for entry to the Diplomatic Service in January 1899 and was posted as an attaché to Paris in October 1899, being promoted Third Secretary in January 1901. In January 1905 he was posted to Constantinople, was promoted Second Secretary in April, and returned to London to work at the Foreign Office in September. In September 1906 he was posted to Rome and in February 1909 he returned to Paris as private secretary to Sir Francis Bertie, British Ambassador to France. In April 1912 he was promoted First Secretary and posted to St Petersburg, transferred to Madrid in October 1913, and returned to Paris in May 1916.