During his later years in Comrie there was much discussion regarding the superior education which young people were receiving compared to his own schooling, especially about geography. Finally John exclaimed, “Aye, aye! The children at the skules now-a-days ken better aboot Spain and Portugal than them that were in’t! Is that fair?” One day he was detailing the hardships undergone in the Peninsula, and the effects of hunger on the great retreat to Corunna mentioning that the soldiers were compelled to eat their boots. One of the children found this hard to grasp and asked with some amazement, “Surely you didn’t eat the tackets in the boots as well?” “No, no,” said the soldier, “we just ate round about them!”

Several years before his death he received the Peninsula medal with clasps, and also a small pension. This was awarded on account of his being wounded in the ankles by slug shot during the American War of 1812-1814.