Now president of the brigade, he says he owes a great deal to the organisation and the church.

“When I was nine, I went into the Boys’ Brigade and never looked back,” he told the Tele. “Everything I’ve got in life is because of that church and the Boys’ Brigade.”

John took up the bugle at age 12. He played his first remembrance service at 13 and, by 15, had been presented with a silver bugle after being judged best brigade bugler three years running.

Shortly afterwards, tragedy struck, when both his parents died of cancer within months of each other in the mid-1950s.

John was placed in a Church of Scotland home, and the Boys’ Brigade became his surrogate family.

“The Boys’ Brigade was my family,” he said. “They said to me, we know you’re down in the dumps, but at your age you can’t stay on your own and you can’t be adopted. We don’t want to lose you. So they said they would adopt me – and the officers of the BB looked after me.”

His bugling talent also gave him, aged 18, the chance to appear at Dundee’s Palace Theatre alongside some of Scotland’s greatest talents of the day.

He was one of the last young men to be called up for national service, and served in Northern Ireland from 1960 to 1962.

But even while he was on tour with the army, John was allowed home to play at the memorial service.

In later life he worked as a slater, before taking on a job as a foreman with Dundee house-builder Bett Brothers.

After being made redundant, he set up his own company John James Roofing Services, now run by his son Steve, in 1984.

He and his wife, Mary (69), a retired teacher from Powrie Primary, recently celebrated their golden wedding.

* Perth’s Remembrance Sunday commemoration will see veterans from the British Legion, representatives of the Royal Regiment of Scotland and local cadets march through the city centre.

The parade, led by the Highland Band (The Royal Regiment of Scotland), will march from City Mills car park to St John’s Kirk at approximately 9.50 am.