 He served as a councillor on Kirkcaldy Town Council and Fife County Council from 1946 and was a governor of Dundee College of Education and a member of his local hospital board.Gourlay contested South Angus in 1955.He was Member of Parliament for Kirkcaldy Burghs (and then Kirkcaldy) from 1959 until he died in office shortly prior to the 1987 general election, at which Dr. Lewis Moonie was elected as his successor.