John was born in 1895 to William Feggetter and Amelia Stewart Young Feggetter, who lived at 9 Dilston Terrace, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne. John was the eldest son and had six younger siblings, Henry, James, George, Stewart, Joan, and Catherine, as well as one older sister, Amelia.
He was educated at Rutherford College before attending Armstrong College in 1914. In 1915, he entered the Honours School of English and Latin.
John was commissioned into the Northumberland Fusiliers, 15th Battalion in the winter of December 1915, at the rank of Second Lieutenant. In 1916, he served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from June 1916. Shortly after, Feggetter transferred to the 13th Battalion and left for France in 1916, seeing action in the Battle of the Somme. He was, however, wounded in the shoulder at Mametz Wood on 13th July 1916 and invalided home. He did not re-join his regiment until December that year.
In April, 1917, he was made Signalling and Intelligence Officer and, on the amalgamation of the 12th and 13th Battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers, indefinitely took up an Intelligence role.
John was awarded the Military Cross "for conspicuously good service during the period March 21 – September 21, 1917, especially for gallantry and devotion to duty on April 2nd, near Croisilles, when by his skill and fearlessness he established telephonic communication between the front line and Battalion Headquarters within a few minutes of the capture of an important objective."
John was killed in action on 4th October 1917 aged 22. He fell a few hundred yards north-west of the hamlet of Reutel, and around a thousand yards east of Polygon Wood, whilst performing his task of establishing communications between allied positions.
His Commanding Officer wrote: 'On 4 October the battalion took part in the great victory then won, and paid a heavy price. Your son accompanied Lieut-Col. Dix as Intelligence Officer; the colonel was killed whilst leading the battalion, and I greatly fear that your son fall at the same time. He will leave a splendid record of service with the battalion. Colonel Dix thought most hightly of him, as did all of us.'
His Chaplian said 'Your son was one of the most cheerful, fearless, and conscientious men I have ever met, and is sadly missed by the officers and men of the Fusiliers, and the Queen's also, with whom he frequently came in contact.'
A fellow officer wrote 'On the morning of 4 October he went up in front of the battalion to mark out the jumping-off point, and later met the companies and put them into position...Always the most gallant of soldiers, he had no fear of of death. His coolness in danger and disregard of shell-fire had become almost proverbial in the battalion, and was a constant inspiration to all who saw him.'