During World War I he won the Military Cross[1] and was killed in action in Belgium during the Battle of Passchendaele.

Recruited from the Engineers, he played nine senior games for Essendon, and kicked two goals.

His first match was against Geelong at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, on 25 May 1912 (round 5), in which he played well.

[3] The son of Edward and Annie Harvey, née Gilpin, he was born in Canterbury, Victoria[4] in 1892, and married Mona Madeleine Faragher, at Wandsworth, London on 18 October 1916.

[5] Captain William George Harvey, M.C., 1st Australian Pioneers, was killed in action at the age of 25 on 14 September 1917.