John Dingle was the son of architect, John Martin Dingle, and his wife Phillis.

He had initially attended Westoe Secondary School, and transferred to the Boys High School in September, 1908, at the age of 15.

He left in July, 1911, to be articled to Mr Hadaway, a North Shields Chartered Accountant, and had passed the Institute of Chartered Accountants intermediate examination in 1914.

He was a keen Boy Scout, and was assistant Scout Master with the St Mark's troop in South Shields.

In 1915 he entered the Durham Officers Training Corps, and earned a commission with the 3rd Northumberland Fusiliers (a training battalion).

In 1916, having been promoted to Lieutenant, he went with the 2nd Battalion to Salonika, in Greece, and was part of the advance from there when he was killed on 10-Sep-1916

There had been some confusion over the date on which he was killed. The school's record says Oct-1916, and his medal card says 10-Oct-1916 has a later note "(10.9.16?)" on it. Commonwealth War Graves and contemporary newspaper reports have 10-Sep-1916.

He is buried in the British Military Cemetery at Struma, Greece.