Henry Harvey

Admiral Sir Henry Harvey KB (Bef. 4 Aug 1737 – 28 December 1810) was a long-serving officer of the British Royal Navy during the second half of the eighteenth century. Harvey participated in numerous naval operations and actions and especially distinguished himself at the Glorious First of June in command of . His career took him all over the world, particularly on the North American station and in the West Indies where he commanded numerous ships and, later in his career, squadrons during the course of three different wars. Harvey was a member of a distinguished naval family, his brother was killed in action in 1794, three of his sons entered the navy and one of them was later raised to admiral himself. Early career Henry Harvey was born in Eythorne, Kent in 1737, the second son of Richard and Elizabeth Harvey. With his elder brother John Harvey, Henry was educated in France during the 1740s and in 1751 joined the Royal Navy, a service his brother also joined three years later. Harvey was encouraged into service by the distantly related Sir Peircy Brett, whose patronage supported Harvey throughout his career. Harvey's first ship, aged only eight, was the sixth-rate aged eleven in 1754, Harvey was transferred to . It is not clear how much time Harvey actually spent aboard these ships, as it was common practice at the time for the children of naval families to be entered on a ship's books to gain experience pending their actual entry into the service, an illegal practice known as "false muster". By 1757, and aged 15, Harvey was certainly at sea, making junior lieutenant aboard the fourth-rate in the English Channel, the West Indies and along the North American coast during the Seven Years' War. A capable and well supported officer, Harvey was soon promoted to first lieutenant aboard the frigate , which was wrecked at Cape François, Cuba in 1762, resulting in Harvey spending the next year as a prisoner of war. During the voyage home on parole aboard , Harvey made close friends with Lieutenant Constantine Phipps, who later became a Lord of the Admiralty. Polar exploration The end of the war that same year gave Harvey the opportunity to return to the sea as first lieutenant of the frigate off North America. In 1764 he was given his first independent command with the schooner HMS Magdalen, employed in anti-smuggling operations at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.