John Harvey

Served with Essex County Constabulary from November 30, 1885 and died on January 5, 1894.

Police Sergeant John Harvey served in the West Riding of Yorkshire before transferring to Essex in 1885. He was posted to Ardleigh on 6 January 1886 and promoted to sergeant there on 1 October 1891. He had a wife and three children, and at the time he died his wife was again pregnant.

On 4 January 1894 John Harvey made some enquiries on his beat, and patrolled for some distance with one of his constables who last saw him at about 7.30pm. The following morning John Harvey's body was found head first down a well in the snow-covered garden of a cottage in Ardleigh; his watch had stopped at 8.21. There were injuries to the face, but it could not be determined with certainty how they had been caused. It has never been proved whether the Sergeant fell or whether he was pushed.