Jump to content

Daniel Whittle Harvey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Daniel Whittle Harvey (10 January 1786 – 24 February 1863) was a Radical English politician who founded The Sunday Times newspaper and was the first Commissioner of the City of London Police.

Biography

[edit]

Harvey trained as a lawyer, and became a Fellow of the Inner Temple in 1818, but was twice refused admission to the bar. He first stood for Parliament in 1812 as Radical candidate for Colchester, and was defeated, but secured election for the same borough in 1818. At the 1820 election he was deprived of victory when his qualification proved defective, but he was re-elected in 1826 and for several elections thereafter; he subsequently also represented Southwark. He was a gifted orator and consistently took a moderate radical line, advocating limited reform both of Parliament and of the Church, and was at times bitterly at odds with the Whig government. In 1839 he was one of the MPs who took part in the conference with William Lovett's London Working Men's Association from which the Chartists emerged.

City of London constables, 1840

In 1821, Harvey founded a Sunday newspaper, The New Observer, which the following year adopted its present title, The Sunday Times. On one occasion he was imprisoned when the paper libelled the King, George IV.

In 1839, he was appointed Registrar of the Metropolitan Public Carriages, becoming the chief regulator of the taxi trade in London. Later the same year, the City of London Police was re-organised, and Harvey relinquished his seat in Parliament to become its first Commissioner; he retained the post until 1863.

References

[edit]
[edit]
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Colchester
1818–1820
With: James Beckford Wildman
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Colchester
1826–1835
With: Sir George Henry Smyth 1826–1830
Andrew Spottiswoode 1830–1831
William Mayhew 1831–1832
Richard Sanderson1832–1835
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Southwark
1835–1840
With: John Humphery
Succeeded by
Police appointments
New institution Commissioner of the City of London Police
1839–1863
Succeeded by