David Charles Harvey
Encyclopedia
David Charles Harvey was an historian and author born in East Ham
East Ham
East Ham is a suburban district of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Newham. It is a built-up district located 8 miles east-northeast of Charing Cross...

, London. He is notable for his seminal work Monuments To Courage
Monuments to Courage
Monuments to Courage: Victoria Cross Monuments and Headstones is a two-volume book by David Harvey on the last resting places of 1,322 of the 1,350 recipients of the Victoria Cross. The 896 page book has over 5,000 illustrations and a large index enabling one to cross reference with ease. There is...

which documents the graves of almost all recipients of the Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....

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

Harvey was the son of a grocer and worked as a salesman after attending Hinchley Wood School in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

. He later joined the Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...

 where he started the mounted police magazine One One Ten, before moving to Denver, Colorado to run an equestrian Centre for over a decade.

A chance meeting with Canon William Lummis
Canon William Lummis
Canon William Murrell Lummis, MC was a British military historian most noted for the research he conducted on the Victoria Cross, the Charge of the Light Brigade, and Rorke's Drift.-Military career:...

 led him to take over his life-work of researching and documenting the final resting places of all Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....

 recipients. This task took Harvey to 48 countries over the next four decades. However, an accident during a visit to the Somme
Somme
Somme is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Picardy region of France....

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 on 4 March 2004.
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