We were sorry to hear of the passing of Prof. Paul Harvey, a friend of our congregation who passed away recently on 11 April 2025. This obituary (below) was written by Francis Pritchard, Secretary of the Senior Common Room of University College at Durham University. You can see videos of the services Prof. Harvey led for us beneath the obituary.

“Paul Dean Adshead Harvey died peacefully after a short illness on 11 April 2025 at the age of 94 at Bowburn Care Home, County Durham.

Paul Harvey was born 07 May 1930 in London, living in Kennington until the age of 10. In 1940, to escape the war, he was shipped across the Atlantic and lived with relatives for three formative years in Newfoundland. Returning to the UK in 1943, Paul was educated at Warwick School until 1948. Rejected for National Service, Paul worked on a farm in Warwickshire in 1949, and on a citrus plantation near Marrakech in 1950. At St John’s College, Oxford, Paul read Modern History (1950-53), and then worked as Assistant Archivist in the Warwick County Record Office (1954-56).

In 1957, Paul was employed as the Assistant Keeper in the Department of Manuscripts at the British Museum, where he worked until 1966, and where he met his future wife and fellow academic, Yvonne Crossman, whom he married in 1968. While employed at the British Museum, Paul also studied for his D.Phil at St John’s College, Oxford, researching English medieval agrarian history; he attained his doctorate in 1963.

Academically, Paul developed, in his own words “three strands of interest- in archive preservation, in medieval social and economic history, and in the history of maps”. In 1966, Paul and Yvonne moved to Southampton, where Paul worked as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in medieval social and economic history at the University of Southampton. In 1978, Paul took up a chair as Professor of Medieval History at the University of Durham, working there until retiring as Professor Emeritus in 1985.

Paul’s retirement was only a technicality: he continued to publish, attend many conferences, and teach part-time, developing a great interest in the history of sigillography, and continuing research in medieval cartography. From among his over 100 publications, Paul was especially proud of his works:

• Manorial records of Cuxham, Oxfordshire, circa 1200-1359 (1976);
• The history of topographical maps: symbols, pictures and surveys (1980);
• Mappa mundi: the Hereford world map (1996);
• Medieval maps of the Holy Land (2012).

In 2003, Paul became a Fellow of the British Academy, adding to his memberships and fellowships of numerous other institutions. Paul and Yvonne had no children, and Yvonne passed away in 2014. Paul continued to be academically active until 2020 and lived independently in Durham until 2024. Following his wishes there will not be a funeral, but memorial gatherings to celebrate Paul’s life are being planned in Durham and London in the coming months.”

Prof. Paul Harvey’s services: