David Charles Harvey (29 July 1946 – 4 March 2004) was a 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, a task that took him over 36 years to complete.

Biography

Harvey was born in East Ham, London, the son of a grocer, and worked as a salesman after he attended Hinchley Wood School in Surrey. 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 consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, 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 Victoria Cross 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 national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' and ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

''.

''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 Victoria Cross. 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 Colour Sergeant Johnson Gideon Beharry, (born 26 July 1979) is a British Army soldier who, on 18 March 2005, was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration for valour in the British and Commonwealth armed forces, for saving me ...

), 28 Victoria Cross recipients were still alive at the time the book went to press, altbough 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

* * *

References

David Harvey (obituary)
in ''

'' 17 March 2004, retrieved 14 April 2013 *David Harvey (obituary), ''

'', 13 March 2004 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