Originally trading as a tobacco and flaxseed merchant, George Suffern served as an alderman of the borough and as Mayor during 1848.

Suffern was as a member of the Board of the Belfast Charitable Society, and was appointed by the charity as a Spring Water Commissioner in 1833. Suffern also served on the committee of the Belfast Fever Hospital and on the city’s Police Committee. He sat on the committee of the Belfast Botanical Garden and was a member of the Conservative party.

On the day before his death, Suffern was one of a depuration of the town council who travelled to Dublin to present a corporation address to Queen Victoria. He took ill in the antechamber of the throne room at Dublin Castle and died, aged fifty-five, from cholera on 16 August 1849. His sister also contracted the illness and died hours after her brother.