 In 1927 he succeeded his father as Earl of Iveagh and chairman of the family brewing business in Dublin and for thirty-five years directed its consolidation at home and its expansion abroad with the establishment of breweries in London, Nigeria and Malaya.A keen agriculturist, he cleverly transformed the barren sandy-soiled shooting estate at Elveden in Suffolk into a productive farm by ploughing in brewers' grains over decades, thereby creating humus.Rupert had by this time established his reputation as an able politician and enthusiastic supporter of science.