William Henry Harvey was born in Netley, Hampshire, on December 22nd, 1896, the son of a corporal in the RAMC. Military life took the family to Leeds in the early part of the twentieth century; so it was that Harvey's earliest football included a spell with the Leeds-based Yorkshire Amateurs side in the run-up to World War One, where he saw service with the West Yorkshire Regiment.
After the war Harvey joined Sheffield Wednesday, playing nineteen times in the side relegated to division two in 1919-20 (and playing in the same side as Teddy Davison, his predecessor at Chesterfield.) He spent time out of football the following winter, showing his prowess as a cricketer by spending the season in South Africa. He made four appearances in the Currie Cup for the Border Province but could not affect their apparently long-standing reputation as that competition's whipping-boys.
1921 saw him back in England. He signed on at Birmingham and stayed four seasons, making seventy-eight Division One appearances for Brum and playing cricket for Warwickshire. The wing was his domain and pace was his principal weapon; that, combined with his habitually well-groomed appearance, persuaded contemporary biographers to refer to him as "The moustachioed speedster." A short spell at Southend ended with a return to St Andrew's as coach to their second eleven. He became City's manager in 1927 but stood down after one full season. When Chesterfield advertised for a new manager in the wake of Davison's departure he was given the nod over Billy Hampson, the Carlisle manager, and Sheffield Wednesday player Jimmy Seed. The decision was evidently not unanimous, though.
Harvey was astute enough to avoid tampering with the legacy that Teddy Davison left, and the club had the sense to stick with him when his first season ended in relegation from Division Two. It was not Harvey's way to steamroller in and make radical changes, for the sake of them, and he formed a strong bonds with Shirley Abbott and Ollie Thompson, trainers to the first team and reserves.
Steady but certain progress in the side's development came in an era when matters off the field dominated, with an ambitious ground improvement programme culminating in the opening of the new main stand in 1937. By this time Harvey had piloted the club back to promotion from the Northern Section to Division Two, and his tactical awareness saw his side match the likes of Newcastle, Tottenham and Manchester United.
Out of the blue, Harvey was asked to resign towards the end of the 1937-8 season. Unspecified differences over changes in policy were cited, and history holds few clues as to what they were; the club's all-round approach was becoming more ambitious, with sides joining the Central and Yorkshire Leagues and ground developments planned, and perhaps it was felt that Harvey couldn't produce a side to match that ambition, or perhaps the board already had Norman Bullock lined up. Having asked him to go, though, the club acceded to his request to be allowed to stay on until after the Football League's AGM that summer. That AGM saw Gillingham voted out of the league and it was the Priestfield side that offered Harvey his next management post. When they failed to gain re-election at the first attempt in 1938-9, Harvey was sacked as an economy measure.
Having left Priestfield, Bill turned his back on football. He went to work for the Tyne Brand food group and settled in North Shields, his wife's home town, where he died in 1972. He talked warmly of his time at Chesterfield in later life, despite the unfortunate circumstances of his leaving.
