Norman Harvey VC Statue unveiling. Mesnes Park

This has been the Newton and Earlestown Community Group (NECG) key project for this year and they have commissioned a statue to be unveiled in Mesnes Park. We have been supplied this information by St Helens  Council

This event is to commemorate the only resident of Newton-le-Willows to have ever been awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry. The event will also commemorate the 300 or more soldiers from Newton-le-Willows who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the First World War. 

Norman Harvey VC enlisted in the Army with the South Lancashire Regiment when he was 15 after misleading them about his age at the start of the First World War. After getting injured in France, and the Army realising that he was too young to serve, he was sent back to the UK to recover and undergo bayonet training. 

When the Army then became short of men due to casualties sustained in France, Pte Harvey and others in his position were used to fill vacancies in other regiments and so he joined the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and went back to France. In 1918, the stalemate of trench warfare had been broken and fighting became brutal and disorganised in open skirmishes throughout France and Belgium. Two weeks before the formal surrender, and subsequent end of the First World War, Pte Harvey, at the age of 18, became pinned down with his unit at a farm due to being exposed to a German machine gun unit. Several his unit were injured and unable to fight. Without instruction, Pte Harvey ran towards the farm over around 40 yards of open ground and to the left, under heavy machine gun fire. His Platoon Sergeant reports “hearing 2 rifle shots and the machine gun fell silent”. Pte Harvey then emerged with around 20 surrendered German soldiers.

Further detail about the gruesome detail of this encounter can be found online and in the gazette citation.

For his actions, Pte Harvey was awarded the Victoria Cross and was presented this by King George V in 1919 at Buckingham Palace. Upon his return to Newton-le-Willows, Pte Harvey VC was received at St Peters School and St Peters Church for a presentation and homecoming. 

Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, Pte Harvey VC enlisted from the outset with the Royal Engineers. He was promoted to Company Quartermaster-Sergeant in April 1941.Tragically, he was killed at the age of 42 in Haifa, in what is now Israel, on the 16th February 1942. He is buried at the Khayat Beach Cemetery in Israel. 

I am sure that you agree that the events surrounding Norman Harvey VC are remarkable, and so a statue to commemorate him and those others who didn’t return from the First World War will be unveiled on the 27th October 2018 in Mesnes Park in the centre of the Remembrance Meadow installed in 2014. There will be significant representation from the armed forces, with a military band and mounted police. We hope that you can send uniformed representation to participate in both the church service, parade and unveiling. As with Remembrance Sunday, you are welcome to take part in both the Church Service and the Parade to Mesnes Park.