His parents returned to England for the duration of World War I, as his father was an engineer and worked in Southampton in a naval wartime position.
In 1933 he assisted Norman Carter in preparing cartoons for stained-glass windows called Sheep Country, and two murals for the former Rural Bank building in Martin Place, Sydney; the building was later demolished, but the murals were removed by the conservation staff of the Art Gallery of NSW.
When Edmund Harvey held his first exhibition in Melbourne in 1934, Arthur Streeton hailed him as 'a clever young painter from Sydney.'
His 1944 oil painting on hardboard Flower piece is part of the Art Gallery of New South Wales collection.
In 1935 Harvey and Arthur Murch founded the School of Decorative Arts, situated at the corner of Liverpool and Castlereagh Streets, Sydney.
He retired at the end of 1971, after thirty-seven years teaching at the National Art School, and continued to paint in private practice until his death.
[5] He was a close, lifelong friend of Australian artist and Archibald Prize winner Arthur Murch.