William Fryer Harvey was an English writer of short stories, most notably in the mystery and horror genres. Among his better-known stories are 'August Heat' and 'The Beast with Five Fingers'.

Born into a wealthy Quaker family in Yorkshire, he attended the Quaker school Leighton Park in Reading before going on to Balliol College, Oxford, where he took a degree in medicine. Ill health dogged him, however, and he devoted himself to personal projects such as his first book of short stories, Midnight House.

During World War I, he joined a Friends' Ambulance Unit, later serving as a surgeon-lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and received the Albert Medal for Lifesaving. Lung damage received during the rescue that resulted in this award was to trouble him for the rest of his life, but he continued to write both short stories and his cheerful and good natured memoir, We Were Seven.

Harvey died at the age of 52. The release of the movie The Beast with Five Fingers (1946), directed by Robert Florey, starring Peter Lorre, and based on a story of his, caused a resurgence of interest in Harvey's work.