Background
Cuffe was the second son of John Cuffe, 3rd Earl of Desart and his wife, Elizabeth, the third daughter of John Campbell, 1st Earl Cawdor.
Cuffe was the second son of John Cuffe, 3rd Earl of Desart and his wife, Elizabeth, the third daughter of John Campbell, 1st Earl Cawdor.
In his early life he was a midshipman in the Royal Navy before becoming a barrister in 1872. In 1877 he was appointed as a secretary to the Judicature Committee and as a solicitor to The Treasury a year later. In 1894 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath and as Treasury Solicitor that year, as well as Queen"s Proctor and Director of Public Prosecutions.
In 1909, Dysart was created Baron Desart in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which enabled him to sit in the House of Lords (his other titles being in the Peerage of Ireland, which did not entitle him to a seat).
In 1913, he was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed a Knight of Street Patrick in 1919. Participated as an Unionist delegate to the 1917-1918 Irish Convention.
He was also appointed Lord Lieutenant of Kilkenny in 1920, a post he held until the Irish Free State was formed in 1922, when all lord lieutenancies of Ireland (bar those of Northern Ireland) were abolished.