[1] He was the son of Sir William Cundiff, a prominent businessman and politician in Manchester who held the office of Lord Mayor in 1922–23.
[1][3] Following the war, he joined the part-time reserve Territorial Army, returning to the RFA,[4] which became part of the Royal Regiment of Artillery (RA) in 1924.
[6] With the outbreak of the Second World War Cundiff received a commission as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve.
[9] He was to remain as Rusholme's member of parliament for less than a year, as he was defeated by Lester Hutchinson of the Labour Party when a general election was held in 1945 by a margin of 11 votes.
[11] The new constituency was first contested at the 1950 general election, and he won the seat comfortably with a majority of over 8,500 votes over his Labour challenger.