Harvey was the elder son of Henry Allington Harvey, a partner in the firm of Foster, Mason and Hervey, of Mitcham, Surrey, paint manufacturers, and his wife, Laetitia, who was a daughter of Peter Kingsley Wolfe and a descendant of General James Wolfe, hero of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
In 1928 he published a monograph on the chemistry and physics of sea water, and in 1933 a classic paper on the rate of diatom growth. With three colleagues he wrote a seminal paper on plankton and its control. [citation needed]
The National Marine Biological Library at the Marine Biological Association retain some of Harvey's scientific notebooks and records, including data sheets and notes on hydrographic observations.[5][6]
Hydrography of the Mouth of the English Channel (1929–1932) [citation needed]
Über das Kohlensäuresystem im Meerwasser by Kurt Buch, H. W. Harvey, H. Wattenberg, and S. Gripenberg (Conseil Perm. Internat. p. l'Explor. de la Mer, Rapp. et Proc.-Verb. (v. 79, 1932)[citation needed]
Note on Colloidal Ferric Hydroxide in Sea Water (1937)[citation needed]
Note on Selective Feeding by Calanus (1937)[citation needed]
Recent Advances in the Chemistry and Biology of Sea Water (Cambridge University Press, 1945)[citation needed]
On the production of living matter in the sea off Plymouth (Journal of the Marine Biological Association, 1950)[7]
The Chemistry and Fertility of Sea Waters (Cambridge University Press, 1966)[citation needed]
H. W. Harvey has been the leading student for many years of the changes in the chemical constituents of sea water brought about through the agencies of plants and animals and also of how the availability of nutrient chemicals determines the fertility of the sea.
"Distinguished for his fruitful studies concerning the factors which control the production of life in the sea. He has carried out extensive researches on the role of nitrates and other inorganic constituents of sea water both under laboratory and natural conditions. He has also developed highly valuable and original methods for the qualitative estimation of phytoplankton. All this work has added greatly to our knowledge of the general cycles of marine life."[8]