Cecil Harvey (Northern Ireland politician)
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Cecil Harvey (1918[1] – 1985[2]) was a Northern Irish unionist politician and Church elder.
Cecil Harvey | |
|---|---|
| Member of Down District Council | |
| In office 20 May 1981 – 15 May 1985 | |
| Preceded by | William Finlay |
| Succeeded by | District abolished |
| Constituency | Down Area A |
| Member of the Constitutional Convention for South Down | |
| In office 1975–1976 | |
| Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for South Down | |
| In office 1973–1974 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1918 Crossgar, County Down, Northern Ireland |
| Died | 11 April 1985 (aged 66–67) |
| Party | DUP (from 1983) United Ulster Unionist Party (1975 - 1983) |
Other political affiliations | Vanguard (1973 - 1975) Ulster Unionist (before 1973) |
Background
Harvey was educated at Garvey College in Belfast.[1] He was a founding elder of Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, in 1951. The following year, he suggested the congregation's move from Crossgar to Whiteabbey.[3] He was also active in the Orange Order[4] and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and was elected as a councillor.[5] He became disillusioned with the UUP as it came to support the idea of power-sharing, and joined the rival Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party.[5] Under this banner, he was elected from South Down to the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1973, where he was the party's chief whip,[6] then the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention.[7]
In 1974, Harvey argued for the Orange Order to pay compensation to loyalists interned around the Ulster Workers' Council strike.[4] By 1975, Harvey was calling for the Order to found an entirely new united unionist party; this was moved by Robert Overend but was defeated.[8] Undeterred, Harvey became a founder member of the United Ulster Unionist Party, becoming the party chairman,[9] and remaining loyal until its collapse in 1984. He then joined the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP),[5] for which he stood unsuccessfully in South Down at the 1983 general election.[10]