F. W. Harvey
| Frederick William Harvey | |
|---|---|
Photograph of FW Harvey circa 1916.
|
|
| Born |
26 March 1888 Hartpury, Gloucestershire, England |
| Died | 13 February 1957 (aged 68) Yorkley, Gloucestershire, England |
| Resting place | Saint Peter's Church, Minsterworth, Gloucestershire |
| Occupation | Poet, Soldier, Lawyer |
| Nationality | British |
| Genre | Poetry, Autobiography, Radio |
| Notable works |
A Gloucestershire Lad at Home and Abroad, Gloucestershire Friends: Poems from a German Prison Camp, Ducks, and other Verses, Comrades in Captivity |
| Notable awards | Distinguished Conduct Medal |
| Spouse |
|
Frederick William Harvey DCM (26 March 1888 – 13 February 1957), often known as Will Harvey, and dubbed "the Laureate of Gloucestershire", was an English poet, broadcaster and solicitor whose poetry became popular during and after World War I.
Harvey was born in 1888 in Hartpury, Gloucestershire, and grew up in Minsterworth. He was educated at the King's School, Gloucester, where he formed a close friendship with Ivor Gurney, and then at Rossall School. Gurney and Herbert Howells, another local composer, would set a number of his poems to music.
He started on a legal career, which would always be somewhat tentative; and began to consider conversion to Roman Catholicism.
On 8 August 1914, only four days after the United Kingdom had declared war on Germany, Harvey joined the 5th battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment as a private. Shortly afterwards, in November, he became a Roman Catholic. He was an adherent of the distributism movement, described as a "third way", in opposition to both socialism and capitalism; and he was influenced by the work of G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc.
His battalion was posted to France in March 1915, where he was promoted to lance corporal and awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. His citation for the DCM reads:
2371 Lance-Corpl. F.W. Harvey, 1/5th Gloucestershire R[egiment]. (T.F.)
For conspicuous gallantry on the night of Aug. 3-4, 1915, near Hebuterne, when, with a patrol, he and another non-commissioned officer went out to reconnoiter in the direction of a suspected listening-post. In advancing they encountered the hostile post, evidently covering a working party in the rear. Corporal Knight at once shot one of the enemy, and , with Lance-Corporal Harvey, rushed the post, shooting two others, and, assistance arriving, the enemy fled. Lance-Corporal Harvey pursued, felling one of the retreating Germans with a bludgeon. He seized him, but, finding his revolver empty and the enemy having opened fire, he was called back by Corporal Knight, and the prisoner escaped. Three Germans were killed, and their rifles and a Mauser pistol were brought in. The patrol had no loss.
...
Wikipedia