Early Career
Edward Harvey was born at the family home in Eastry, Kent to Captain John Harvey and his wife Judith. the second brother of a large family, Harvey was educated at home before joining his father on his ship HMS Brunswick as a "gentleman volunteer" aged only ten at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793. Gaining experience of the service under his father and accompanied by his cousin Thomas Harvey, young Edward was present during the Glorious First of June, when a British Fleet under Admiral Lord Howe engaged a French force several hundred miles out in the North Atlantic. The battle was fought to contest the passage of a grain convy from the United States to France and although the French lost the battle, they did give the convoy time to reach the French Atlantic ports.
Brunswick suffered greatly in the battle however, becoming entangled with the French ship Vengeur du Peuple and both ships taking terrible damage, the Vengeur sinking soon afterwards and Brunswick only just reaching home with hundreds of dead and wounded. Amongst the latter was Harvey's father, who died in Portsmouth of severe wounds on 30 July. Edward and his elder brother John both benefited from the celebrity attached to the family after their father's heroic death and Edward was sent to join John and Thomas aboard HMS Prince of Wales, the flagship commanded by their uncle Admiral Henry Harvey.
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