Edward Thomas Gilchrist was born in Mohill County Leitrim, Ireland on August 21st 1913. He attended the fee paying St Mel's College Longford from 1927 and then at the age of 19 he enrolled at All Hallows Seminary Dublin in 1932. After 6 years of study he was ordained Priest at the age of 24 on the 19th June 1938 by Bishop Thomas Keogh of Kildare and Leighlin and the church of All Saints Dublin specifically for the Archdiosese of St Andrews and Edinburgh in Scotland.

His first appointment here was as assistant Priest in St Ninian's Edinburgh where he was to stay for a year until 1939. He then came here to St Patrick's Kilsyth as an assistant Priest at the start of the Second World War where there was much social upheval as the armed forces were mobilised abroad. He was only to stay in Kilsyth for just over a year until 1940 when he was transferred to St Margaret's Dunfermline in Fife. After another short stay of only 1 year he was then transferred to St Machin's in Lennoxtown in 1941 where he was this time to stay for 8 years. His final post as assistant Priest was an appointment to St Patrick's Lochgelly in Fife between 1949 and 1951.

In 1951 Fr Gilchrist was appointed as Parish Priest of the small Fife parish of St Joseph's Burntisland where he was to stay for 7 years until 1958. He then moved as Parish Priest to St Anne's Newtongrange in Midlothian where he was to stay for 13 years until 1971.

The last record that we have of Father Gilchrist is that he was transferred to the Parish of St Luke's Dalkeith (which is listed in Scottish Secular Clergy as Newbattle) from where he was based and charged with the building and commissioning of a new church - St Anne's Mayfield.

Fr. Gilchrist retired in 1977. His date of death and final resting place are still being researched.