 After serving as a "gadfly" to the British Admiralty, his constructive criticisms causing him to be "denied the role in the formation of policy and the reformations of naval education which his talents warranted", he served as Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at Cambridge University from 1934 to 1936, and Master of Downing College, Cambridge from 1934 to 1946.Richmond was the second son of artist Sir William Blake Richmond, son of the portrait painter George Richmond.In July 1907 he married 
Florence Elsa, second daughter of Sir Thomas Hugh Bell and Lady Bell, half-sister of Gertrude Bell.