Background
The son of Frederick Richards, Justice of the Peace, of Ore and Street Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex.
The son of Frederick Richards, Justice of the Peace, of Ore and Street Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex.
He was educated at the City of London School and the Proprietary School, Gravesend.
He entered employment as a clerk for the firm of Munt Brown and Company, hat and bonnet makers, in the City of London. After fifteen years he was awarded the Bacon Scholarship to study law at Gray"s Inn in 1879. He was called to the bar in 1881.
He worked as counsel for the Postmaster-General and for the London County Council.
In 1898 he "took silk" to become a Queen"s Counsel. From 1882 to 1885 he was one the City"s representatives on the London School Board.
He was elected a bencher of Gray"s Inn and was treasurer in the year before his death. At the 1895 general election he contested the London constituency of Finsbury East.
He was seen as representing his largely working class constituents effectively, and was re-elected in 1900 with an increased majority.
He was appointed chairman of the City Branch of the Church Defence Institution in 1877 and three years later formed the City Church and Churchyard Preservation Society. He inherited his father"s home "Caerhages", West Hill, Street Leonards-on-Sea. In 1901 he paid for the erection of a stone cross in Hastings to mark the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.
Richards died in a London nursing home of heart disease in June 1905 aged 54.
Active in Conservative politics, he unsuccessfully attempted to win a seat for the party at Northampton in 1885, 1886, 1892.
26th United Kingdom Parliament. 27th United Kingdom Parliament.