WILLIAM ANDREW HARVEY
1896 – 1980
William was born in Widecombe in 1898 to Owen Harvey and Elizabeth Ann Turner. William had a younger sister, Louie. He attended Widecombe School between 1903 and 1911. In 1909, William’s mother died and two years later Owen married Elizabeth Olive Burdell.
William worked at the family bakery and village Post Office after he left school.
Upon reaching his eighteenth birthday in October 1916 William enlisted in the Royal Navy.
Seaman Harvey initially trained at HMS Vivid in Devonport, where he continued to work as a baker. In 1917 William was loaned to the Royal Australian Navy to assist in crewing the newly arrived HMAS Melbourne on which he served as a cook.
He remained serving on Melbourne throughout the remainder of the War whilst the ship, as part of the Grand Fleet patrolled the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea. HMAS Melbourne left the Grand Fleet in November 1918 and was based in Plymouth until November 1919 when she returned to Australia.
William was demobbed in 1919. He returned to Widecombe, and with his sister Louie, ran the family bakery and Post Office.
William never married. He died in 1980, aged 82 years, and is buried in Widecombe churchyard.
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