The Right Rev Philip Harvey

Pillar of the Crusade of Rescue – the Catholic Children's Society

Philip James Benedict Harvey, priest: born Richmond, Surrey 6 March 1915; ordained priest 1939; Assistant Administrator, Crusade of Rescue (from 1985 Catholic Children's Society (Westminster)) 1953-63, Administrator 1963-77, Chairman 1977-2002; Honorary Canon, Westminster Archdiocese 1964-76, Canon 1976-77; OBE 1973; Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster 1977-91; died London 2 February 2003.

Bishop Philip Harvey was a key ally of the late Cardinal Basil Hume in the Westminster archdiocese. He will be particularly remembered for his outstanding contribution to what is now the Catholic Children's Society.

In 1953, having served a eight-year stint as an assistant priest to Canon Charles Flood in Fulham, south-west London, he was appointed Assistant Administrator to Flood of the organisation then known as the Crusade of Rescue, founded in 1859 by Cardinal Herbert Vaughan to help destitute children. On Flood's death in 1963 Harvey replaced him as Administrator, and on his appointment as bishop in 1977 he became chairman of the organisation's management board. The Crusade of Rescue changed its name to the Catholic Children's Society (Westminster) in 1985, and Harvey stepped down as Chairman only last year.

Philip Harvey led the society at a time of rapid changes in the field of childcare, as larger institutions gave way to much smaller children's homes and there was an increasing emphasis on foster care and adoption. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the society was responsible for placing many hundreds of new-born babies for adoption each year.

During his almost 50 years of his involvement, many thousands of families and children have been helped by the society, which now has a much wider remit than when it was the Crusade of Rescue. It runs day centres and school counselling services, and has outreach workers working with homeless families in some of the most deprived parts of London.

Philip James Benedict Harvey was born in Richmond, Surrey, in 1915. After attending the Oratory School, Brompton, and Cardinal Vaughan School, Kensington, he studied for the priesthood at St Edmund's College, Ware, in Hertfordshire. He was ordained a priest in Westminster Cathedral by Cardinal Arthur Hinsley just weeks before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, and during the war served parishes in Cricklewood and Kentish Town, in north London, before moving south to Fulham in 1945.

His experience with the Crusade of Rescue led to his appointment to the Houghton Committee, set up to advise the Government on reform of adoption law, leading eventually to the 1976 Adoption Act. One of the Act's key features was to give adoptees the right, when they became adults, to see information held on file about their birth parents. Harvey had initially been sceptical about this proposal but was persuaded of its merits after seeing the outcome of a similar provision in Scotland.

In 1973 he was appointed OBE for services to child welfare. The honour – a rare one for a Roman Catholic bishop – was a source of great pride to him.

Cardinal Hume consecrated him Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster in 1977, giving him special responsibility for the North London pastoral area, as well as the chairing of diocesan education and finance boards.

Colleague bishops will remember Philip Harvey for his sharp mind, for his understanding, approachability and his listening ear. Although not a talkative man, he impressed with his ability to analyse and summarise a problem, and to propose a solution.

Since his retirement he had borne considerable ill-health – including the amputation last year of a leg – with resilience and fortitude. "He had great faith in God," one brother bishop remarked.

Paulinus Barnes