He married Elizabeth Haig, also from Culross, in Gillingham, Kent, in 1848. A year later their first child Sarah was born. In 1852 the Regiment was sent to India and he and his family settled in Poona where their second child, Eliza, was born in 1855. During the period of the Indian Mutiny his family returned to Kent.

      Colour Sergeant McPherson was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on the 26 September 1857 when at great personal danger he saved a wounded Private of his company who was lying in an exposed position and under very heavy fire. He received his decoration on the 6th December 1860 from Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle. He discharged himself from the army on the 28th December of that year and returned to Culross where in 1861 their third child Robina was born.

      Stewart Macpherson was appointed Superintendent of Glasgow Industrial Schools based in Bailieston in 1861 and it was to there he moved with his family. In 1865 their son Ferguson was born and later a second boy, McGregor. The family returned to Culross where Stewart purchased a house in Low Valleyfield, which he named Lucknow Villa. He died there in 1892 aged seventy-three. His widow remarried and moved to Leith in 1897.

      In September 2000 a new headstone, paid for by the local Council's Common Good Fund, was placed on Stewart McPherson's grave in Culross. During the dedication The Highlanders, the modern descendants of the 78th Highlanders, provided a Guard of Honour for the ceremony. Additional money raised by the British Legion will help to pay for a trophy in his name to be awarded annually to the best history project by a Culross pupil.

      Stewart McPherson's decorations, shown below, are on display in the Regimental Museum, Fort George, near Inverness.