Cecil Harvey (1918 – 1985) was a Northern Irish unionist politician and Church elder.
Background Harvey was educated at Garvey College in Belfast. 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.Steve Bruce, Paisley: religion and politics in Northern Ireland, p.35 He was also active in the Orange OrderHenry Patterson and Eric P. Kaufmann, Unionism and Orangeism in Northern Ireland Since 1945, p.204 and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and was elected as a councillor.Steve Bruce, Paisley: religion and politics in Northern Ireland, p.179 He became disillusioned with the UUP as it came to support the idea of power-sharing, and joined the rival Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party. Under this banner, he was elected from South Down to the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1973, where he was the party's chief whip,Ted Nealon, Ireland: a parliamentary directory, 1973–1974 then the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention.South Down 1973–85, Northern Ireland Elections
In 1974, Harvey argued for the Orange Order to pay compensation to loyalists interned around the Ulster Workers' Council strike. 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.Eric P. Kaufmann, The Orange Order: a contemporary Northern Irish history, p.99 Undeterred, Harvey became a founder member of the United Ulster Unionist Party, becoming the party chairman,"Austere surroundings for first UUUP conference", Belfast News Letter, 30 December 2009 [first published 1979] and remaining loyal until its collapse in 1984. He then joined the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), for which he stood unsuccessfully in South Down at the 1983 general election.South Down, 1983–1992
Cecil's son, Harry, later became a DUP politician.
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