John Garvie (16 October 1927 – 3 January 1996) was a Scottish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who scored 87 goals from 237 games playing in the

Scottish League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 k ...

for

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, who currently compete in . They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilto ...

and

Stenhousemuir Stenhousemuir (; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies within the Falkirk council area of Scotland. The town is north-northwest of Falkirk and directly adjoins to Larbert in the west, where the nearest rail access is located ...

and in the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

playing for

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

, Lincoln City and

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team currently compete in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They have played their ...

. He played as an

inside right In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on bein ...

centre forward In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on be ...

Career

Garvie was born in

Bellshill Bellshill (pronounced "Bells hill") is a town in North Lanarkshire in Scotland, southeast of Glasgow city centre and west of Edinburgh. Other nearby localities are Motherwell to the south, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton to the south ...

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark (; ), is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the Central Lowlands and Southern Uplands of Scotland. The county is no l ...

. He began his football career with

Hibernian Hibernian may refer to: * Of Hibernia, Latin name for Ireland; hence ** Irish (disambiguation) Hibernian, Hibernians or The Hibernian may refer to: Sports clubs * Hibernian F.C., a Scottish football club, founded 1875 * Hibernian W.F.C., a Sc ...

after the Second World War. Though he played

on loan In sports, a loan involves a particular player being able to temporarily play for a club other than the one to which they are currently contracted. Loan deals may last from a few weeks to a full season, sometimes persisting for multiple seasons ...

for

and

in the

, he never appeared for Hibs' first team. Garvie moved to England to join

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

club

in 1949, but made only five first-team appearances for Preston before dropping a division to sign for Lincoln City a year later. Access individual season statistics via Season Stats dropdown menu. In his first season, Garvie was the club's leading scorer with 21 goals in all competitions, only one more than

Andy Graver Andrew Martin Graver (12 September 1927 – 18 January 2014) was an English association football, footballer who scored 158 goals from 323 games playing in the Football League for Newcastle United F.C., Newcastle United, Lincoln City F.C., Linco ...

, with whom he formed a fine goalscoring partnership. He scored another 21 the following season – rather fewer than Graver's 39 – and was ever-present as Lincoln won the

Third Division North The Third Division North of the Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated to ...

title in 1951–52. After three seasons of Graver top-scoring for Lincoln, Garvie was leading scorer for the second time in 1954–55, though with only 13 goals as they struggled in the bottom half of the Second Division. In six years with Lincoln, Garvie scored a total of 80 goals from 192 appearances in League and FA Cup. He spent the 1956–57 season with

in the Third Division before moving into

non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

. Garvie joined

Boston United Boston United Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. The club participates in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. The club is known as 'the ...

, playing in the

Midland League The Midland Football League, officially known as the Capelli Sport Midland Football League since January 2025 for sponsorship reasons, is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midl ...

, in 1957, resuming his partnership with Graver. In two seasons, he scored 31 goals from 95 games in all competitions, including goals in Boston's first four games in their first season in the Southern League. He then played for Corby Town, Stamford Town, and Ilkeston Town, where he was again reunited with Graver. However, the pair were prevented from renewing their prolific partnership once more by a foot injury which restricted Garvie to just five appearances. Outside football, Garvie was steward of

Corby Corby is a town and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, northeast of Northampton. In 2021 it had a population of 68,164. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

Trades and Labour Club. He died in January 1996 at the age of 68.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garvie, Johnny 1927 births 1996 deaths Footballers from Bellshill Scottish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Hibernian F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Stenhousemuir F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Carlisle United F.C. players Boston United F.C. players Corby Town F.C. players Ilkeston Town F.C. (1945) players Stamford A.F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Southern Football League players 20th-century Scottish sportsmen