Like the Colossus of Rhodes, Cotter Harvey in his hey-day as Sydney's leading thoracic physician, bestrode Sydney Harbour with one foot in the Royal North Shore Hospital and the other in the Royal Prince Alfred. He was seemingly indefatigable and his tall spare figure moving rapidly was a familiar sight in both hospitals for more than three decades. He left an indelible impression on both institutions. Cotter was born in Grenfell, NSW, the son of Dr LW Harvey, who was in general practice there and later in Manly. Dr Harvey was a graduate of Dublin University and died at the age of fifty-two of tuberculosis which was the stimulus for his son to devote himself to the study and treatment of that disease. Cotter attended Sydney Grammar School where he did well both academically and in sport, winning a number of form prizes and playing in the first fifteen and being a very successful sprinter. Living at Manly it is not surprising that he excelled at surfing which he continued to enjoy well into his twilight years.

On entering the faculty of medicine, he became a student of St Paul's College where he continues his sporting activities and successfully completed his course with second class honours and an appointment as an RMO to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 1920. At the conclusion of his residency his father died and Cotter departed for the UK and Europe where he worked at the Brompton Hospital for Chest Diseases and spent time with Hilary Roche (qv) at the Montana Sanitarium in Switzerland. Following this he gained the Tuberculosis Diploma of Wales and so was well equipped to manage this all too common infectious disease when he returned to Sydney in 1923. The following year he was appointed physician for pulmonary diseases to the Royal North Shore Hospital and honorary assistant physician to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, being promoted to honorary physician in 1938. He continued in this dual capacity until his mandatory retirement from the hospitals in 1957. Throughout this period, with the exceptions of his military service years in 1941 to 1945, he carried on a busy private practice and fulfilled his honorary duties in both hospitals with regard to patient care and student teaching. His patients were devoted to him and he had a phenomenal memory for their personal and clinical details, though at times the pressure of work allowed little time for him to dally at the bed-side. He was quick in assessing patients and arriving at management decisions. He somehow found time to visit sanatoria in Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Waterfall and Thirlmere and was honorary examining physician and director of the Queen Victoria Homes from 1927-50.

It is worthy of note that in June 1918 whilst a medical student he volunteered for the army but was not called up for duty being discharged shortly after the armistice. In January 1941 he again volunteered despite being forty-four years old and having a wife and five children, enlisting in the AAMC with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was sent to Singapore in charge of the medical division of the 2/10 AGH, stationed at Malacca. Shortly afterwards, Singapore and the Malay Peninsula was overrun by the Japanese and on 15 February 1942, Cotter, with many other Australians, was a prisoner of war. Thus he remained for over three years caring for the sick and wounded in Changi and Kranji until liberated in 1945. He, in collaboration with Bill Bye and Bruce Hunt, worked tirelessly to alleviate the dreadful conditions of the prisoners especially in devising ways to overcome the chronic shortage of vitamins. With the food ration down to six hundred calories per day, he too developed beri-beri but fortunately made a full recovery. He was mentioned in despatches for the high quality of his service during this difficult time.

After repatriation and a period of convalescence, Cotter again threw himself whole-heartedly into medical practice but made it clear to the board of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital that he would confine himself to respiratory diseases there as at the Royal North Shore Hospital. Thus he came to head the department of thoracic medicine with Dr H Maynard Rennie, who had established a clinic for bronchiectasis, as his second in command. He was given charge of all the beds in the specials block which were for tuberculous patients and had nontuberculous patients in the C & A blocks.

In 1947 Dr Harry Wunderly (later Sir Harry), after much soul searching and correspondence with his friend Cotter Harvey, accepted the appointment of Commonwealth Director for Tuberculosis, charged with the enormous task of controlling this disease in Australia. A frequent interchange of letters took place between these two men, their one aim being to defeat tuberculosis. Their correspondence, carefully preserved by Cotter, is voluminous and forms part of the written material he bequeathed to the College Library. It is most revealing of the struggle they had with government departments. On 7 January 1947, Cotter wrote to Wunderly about administrative difficulties he was having at RNSH and went on to say:

speaking personally, I feel 1946 has been largely a year of frustration and inertia and I see little to make me more hopeful. Private practice is so unsatisfactory that I often feel I would gladly chuck it. On the other hand, there is no evidence that any government intends to make any proper move towards solving the tuberculosis problem - and things in this state at least grow steadily worse. Of what use is it to see "a lot of the advances both in treatment and in administration" if there is no chance in this benighted country of implementing them?

To which he signs himself "yours disgustedly". However, things did improve. The government implemented Wunderly's plan for mass miniature radiography and built tuberculosis blocks in major hospitals. This coincided with the discovery of effective drugs for the treatment of tuberculosis and so both Harry Wunderly and Cotter Harvey lived to see a great reduction in the incidence and mortality rate of this ancient disease. Wunderly relied greatly on Cotter's opinion and in a letter date 29 September 1948 wrote "if you don't agree with what I have written, please let me know for I value your advice and help".

Cotter Harvey's deep commitment to the control of tuberculosis was shown not only by what had gone before, but also by his undertaking the following appointments: member of the National Health and Medical Research Council's tuberculosis committee 1945 to 1947, Member of the National Tuberculosis Advisory Council 1949 to 1970, president of the National Tuberculosis and Chest Association 1961 to 1966, and director of the Asian-Pacific Tuberculosis Seminar held in Sydney in 1960 under the auspices of WHO, the Commonwealth government and NAPTA. In 1964 he was appointed president of the eastern regional committee of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and in 1967 he was awarded the prestigious Sir Robert Philip Medal of the Chest and Heart Association of UK in recognition of his contributions to his specialty. Cotter retired from his public hospital appointments in 1957 but continued in private practice until 1975. With the free time he then had, he turned his attention and organizing ability to the harmful effects of smoking and founded the Australian Council on Smoking and Health (ACOSH) of which he was president from 1966 to 1975. He was indefatigable in his efforts to bring home to the community the dangers of smoking and the advances which have been made in this direction owe a great deal to Cotter's drive and determination.

In 1965 his services to medicine were recognized by the award of a CBE but his many friends felt he deserved a knighthood. Cotter Harvey was a Foundation Fellow of the College and served on the NSW state committee from 1954 to 1958. He was appointed to the Medical Board of NSW in 1940 and was its president from 1955 to 1967.

In 1924, Cotter married Laura Hingst and they had a most happy marriage producing three sons and two daughters. Two of the sons, Peter and Patrick, are Fellows of the College. Despite his many professional activities, Cotter was a devoted family man and he and his wife entertained frequently at their home in Rose Bay. In his earlier days Cotter enjoyed tennis, golf and surfing which gave way to bowls and gardening after his retirement. In his latter years he was troubled by deafness which precluded his attendance at meetings and he suffered a myocardial infarction some ten years before his sudden death on 17 October 1981. Cotter Harvey was a man of restless energy and his life was one of dedicated service to his profession and the community.