William Arthur Harvey (2 May 1908 – 1978) was an English footballer who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He scored 23 goals from 70 appearances in the Football League for

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

, Chesterfield and

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

. He also played for a variety of non-league clubs, mainly in the north-east of England. These included Chopwell Institute,

Annfield Plain Annfield Plain is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated on a plateau between the towns of Stanley, to the north-east, and Consett, to the west. According to the 2001 census, Annfield Plain has a population of 3,569. By the ti ...

Eden Colliery Welfare Eden may refer to: *Garden of Eden, the "garden of God" described in the Book of Genesis Places and jurisdictions Canada * Eden, Ontario * Eden High School Middle East * Eden, Lebanon, a city and former bishopric * Camp Eden, Iraq ...

, Boston United, and

Stockton Stockton may refer to: Places Australia * Stockton, New South Wales * Stockton, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region New Zealand *Stockton, New Zealand United Kingdom *Stockton, Cheshire *Stockton, Norfolk *Stockton, Chirbu ...

Personal life

Harvey was born in Chopwell,

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, to Michael Harvey, a coal miner, and his wife Esther. At the time of the 1911 Census, the family were living in Blackhall Mill, Chopwell, and the two-year-old Willie was the youngest of six surviving children. and In 1931, he married Sarah, sister of his Barnsley teammate John Wallbanks. He was one of many footballers refused unemployment benefit after football was classified as a seasonal occupation; those normally employed in seasonal work were ineligible for benefit unless they had worked during their off-season. Harvey's brothers-in-law Fred and Jimmy Wallbanks faced the same predicament.
Harvey died in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in 1978 at the age of 70.

Football career

Harvey began his football career with hometown club Chopwell Institute. His performances earned him selection for Durham in inter-county amateur competition in 1927. While on the books of his next club,

of the North-Eastern League, he was selected for the Rest of the League team for the annual match against the reigning champions. He scored 23 league goals in the 1928–29 season before, in March 1929, making his first move into the Football League with Second Division club

. He scored 12 goals from 42 league appearances, the last of which came in the 1931–32 season. He played more often for Barnsley's reserve team in the Midland League, and in a match against Wombwell in March 1932, suffered a fractured skull. He was given a free transfer at the end of the season, and returned to his home town. Harvey dropped out of league football for some time. When he returned, signing for Chesterfield in May 1935, he was reported to have scored 40 goals since Christmas for Eden Colliery Welfare in the North-Eastern League. He spent the season as backup to

Maurice Dando Maurice Dando (July 1905 in Bristol, England – 1949) was an English footballer. Career Dando played for Bath City before joining Bristol Rovers in 1928, initially as an amateur. He joined York City in the summer of 1933, where he scored t ...

, contributing 4 goals – a hat-trick in a 5–0 defeat of Wrexham and the only goal of the home fixture against Lincoln City – from 14 league matches as Chesterfield won the Third Division Northern Section title. For the reserves, he scored at least 26 goals in Midland League competition. For the new season at the higher level, Chesterfield brought in Walter Ponting to play at centre-forward, and Harvey spent the whole season in the reserves, for whom he scored at least 34 goals. Although he was available for transfer, no league club were prepared to meet the fee, so he again dropped out of the Football League, joining Midland League club Boston United for 1937–38. He had scored nine times against that club for Chesterfield's reserves in the previous two seasons, including five in a 7–1 win in March 1936. With Wilf Notley established at centre forward, Boston used Harvey either at inside forward or at outside right, from which position he reportedly missed shooting chances because of his unwillingness to cut inside; nevertheless, he produced 14 goals from 28 Midland League matches. He contributed the ninth goal to Boston's biggest FA Cup win, by 10 goals to nil against

Bilsthorpe Colliery Bilsthorpe Colliery was a colliery in north Nottinghamshire. From when work started in 1925 to the pits closure in 1997, 77 people died at the pit. History The pit began in July 1925 with two shafts. The mine was completed in 1928. On 1 March ...

in the Preliminary Round. Boston re-signed him for 1938–39, but in August 1938 he returned once more to the Football League with

. He made a goalscoring debut in the Football League Jubilee Fund match against local rivals

Hartlepools United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded in 1908 as Har ...

, but Tom Feeney was preferred when the league season started. Darlington did not select him at centre forward until mid-October, moving Feeney to

right half A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...

; Harvey marked the occasion by scoring twice away to Hull City, but his club lost 3–2. He kept his position for the 3–1 win against Lincoln City, in which he was fouled for a penalty kick converted by Mike Boyle and then scored the third goal himself. By the end of the season, Harvey had played only 14 times in the league, and scored 7 goals; in all matches, including cup competitions and the North-Eastern League team, he contributed 36 goals. He began the 1939–40 season with

, newly elected to the North-Eastern League, just before league football was suspended for the duration of the Second World War.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harvey, Bill 1908 births 1978 deaths Sportspeople from the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead Footballers from Tyne and Wear English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Chopwell Institute F.C. players Annfield Plain F.C. players Barnsley F.C. players Eden Colliery Welfare F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Boston United F.C. players Darlington F.C. players Stockton F.C. players English Football League players Midland Football League players Date of death missing