James McGuffin was the son of Robert McGuffin and Margaret Cooke. Robert was born in Belfast at 76 Canmore St. on 18th April 1888. The family hailed from Dungannon. James McGuffin enlisted in Salford, Lancashire. Sergeant James McGuffin was serving with the 15th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers when he died of wounds on 13th September 1917. He was 29 years old. Sergeant McGuffin is buried in Zuydcoote Military Cemetery, near Dunkirk in France. In the autumn of 1917, while the XV Corps was holding the Nieuport section, the 34th and 36th Casualty Clearing Stations were posted at Zuydcoote.
Zuydcoote is a village in the Department of the Nord about 10 kilometres north-east of Dunkirk. The Military Cemetery is west of the village and about 550 metres east of Zuydcoote Halte.