In February 1956, Canon McGarvey was appointed to serve as the Parish priest of Kilsyth who, like his predecessor, had been parish priest in the neighboring parish of Bonnybridge.

Very Rev. Thomas Canon McGarvey was born in Uddingston on 1st December, 1896. He received his early education in Broxburn and his secondary education at Blairs in Aberdeen.

During the First World War he served with the Armed Forces as a gunner in the Royal Artillery.
He studied for the priesthood in the Scots College, Rome from 1920 to 1926, and was ordained there during his final year in 1925.

His first posting as assistant Priest was to St Patrick's Edinburgh where he served from 1926 to 1930. From there he was transferred to St Anthony's Polmont near Falkirk from 1930 to 1936.

His first appointment as Parish Priest was to St Kenneth's Lochore where he served the whole of the War Years and more from 1936 to 1949. As he did not have a Chalice of his own the poeple of Lochore paid for him to have a second hand one for his presentation which his family then had guilded with gold from melted down family jewlery.

From 1949 to 1956 Canon McGarvie was the Parish Priest of St Joseph's Bonnybridge. His last posting was here to the Parish of St Patrick's Kilsyth where he was Parish Priest from 1956 until his retirement in 1972.

Canon McGarvey was the first native born priest to serve as parish priest in Kilsyth. During the early years of his charge here, Canon McGarvey, in his own unobtrusive way, sought to know his parish and its needs, both spiritual and temporal. He turned his attention to the youth of the parish and saw the need for some established organisation to cater for the development of young people, both boys and girls, in the earlyteenage years. With this in mind he founded the first Catholic Boy Scout Troop in Kilsyth, and with it the attendant Cubs for the very young boys. At the same time he promoted the Guides and Brownies for girls, and so originated what is still to-day a very worthwhile and rewarding part of Kilsyth social life for the young.

The young men's club, under the expert leadership of his curates, was given a renewed lease of life in the Boys' Club. This club filled a much needed want for this age group, and the activities carried on under its aegis reflected great credit on all who took part.

Since very little had been done to the church since the fire in 1954, it was now looking very dilapidated and the need for a new church was now very evident. Nevertheless a beginning on the new church could not be made until a substantial sum of money could be provided, and so Canon McGarvey set about raising funds for the building. He organised socials on a regional basis so that each district in the parish would play its part in this effort. These were very successful and engendered a spirit of unanimity which has been maintained ever since in all the activities promoted for the raising of funds for the new church.

When Canon McGarvie retired in 1972 a council house was found for him in Johnston Avenue Kilsyth, close by two spinster sisters, Eileen and Lucinda Robinson. Eileen had been sacristan in St Patrick's for many years for Canon McGarvie and knew him very well. The two spinster sisters looked after Canon McGarvie in his retirement and nursed him through his eventual ill health right through to his death on 6th Oct 1987. Shortly before his death and by this time confined to a wheelchair Canon McGarvie was able to celebrate the diamond jubilee of his ordination.

The overarching legacy of Canon McGarvie is that during his time he was able to fund and build the current St Patrick's Church to the design of Gillespie Kidd and Coia which is now a part of Scotland's architectural heritage and which remains a modern looking building 50 years after is construction, providing a magnificent space in which to celebrate Mass.