David Charles Harvey (29 July 1946 – 4 March 2004) was a British historian and author. He is notable for his seminal work, ''Monuments To Courage'', which documents the graves of almost all recipients of the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious decoration of the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British decorations system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British ...

, a task that took him over 36 years to complete.

Biography

Harvey was born in

East Ham East Ham is a district of the London Borough of Newham, England, 8 miles (12.8 km) east of Charing Cross. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Essex, East Ham is identified in the London Plan as a ...

, then in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

but now part of the London Borough of Newham, the son of a grocer, and worked as a salesman after he attended Hinchley Wood School in

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. He later joined the Metropolitan Police, where he started the mounted police magazine ''One One Ten'', before he moved to

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, to run an equestrian centre for over a decade. A chance meeting with Canon William Lummis led him to take over his life-work of researching and documenting the final resting places of all

recipients. This task took Harvey to 48 countries over the next four decades. However, an accident during a visit to the Somme in 1992 left Harvey in a wheelchair for the remainder of his life and he later had to have a leg amputated. ''Monuments to Courage'' was finally published in 1999. Harvey married once in 1968, to Ruth Ward. The couple had a son and two daughters. They divorced in 1979. Harvey died in 2004 aged 57. He received obituaries in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' and ''

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''.

''Monuments to Courage''

''Monuments to Courage: Victoria Cross Monuments and Headstones'' is a two-volume book by Harvey on the last resting places of 1,322 of the 1,350 recipients of the

. The book features an introduction by Princess Alexandra and a foreword by Australian VC recipient Sir Arthur Roden Cutler. Each entry gives the date of birth, date of action, and brief details of the Victoria Cross action, date of death, and place of burial or cremation where applicable. Where possible, photographs of the individual, his grave, and any memorial were included. Excluding the recent Iraq war recipient ( Johnson Beharry), 28 Victoria Cross recipients were still alive at the time the book went to press, although several have since died. The research for this work took Harvey 36 years of travelling to 48 countries in his search for unknown graves. His interest in the topic was awakened in the early 1960s when he assisted William Lummis into his researches into Victoria Cross recipients.Harvey, David (1999). ''Monuments to Courage: Victoria Cross Headstones and Memorials. Vol. 1, 1854–1916''

Details

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References

British military writers 1946 births 2004 deaths British military historians Metropolitan Police officers People from East Ham Victoria Cross books English amputees {{UK-historian-stub