He was educated at Retford King Edward VI Grammar School and Trinity College, Dublin where he matriculated in October 1884 at the age of 22, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
The Kent side was missing two players and Daffen, called in on the strength of his club cricket, scored six and four whilst opening the batting.
[2][3] Daffen was restricted by working as a teacher to when he could play senior cricket for Kent, but returned to the side in August, playing against the touring Australians and Surrey during Canterbury Cricket Week and then in three matches towards the end of the month as Kent finished third in the newly formed County Championship.
[10] Daffen moved away from Kent at the end of the 1891 season, taking up a post teaching English at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh.
His oldest son Harold was born at Brunswick, Victoria in 1899 and by 1900 the family was living at Adelaide in South Australia,[16] Daffen having taken a Classics teaching post at Way College in the city.