His family had emigrated to Canada, but Richardson was educated at Harrow (1908–12), before attending the University of British Columbia.
[1][2] He volunteered for the Canadian Army in 1914, and automatically became a Canadian citizen in the process; he fought with the country's forces in Europe during World War I as a gunner, before receiving a field commission; he was mentioned in dispatches twice and received the Territorial Decoration.
Richardson was also chairman of the Hop Merchants Association and in 1936, he joined the London Section of the Institute of Brewing.
His career was interrupted by the Second World War, when, having remained in the Territorial Army after 1918, he was called up as a Lieutenant-Colonel commanding a gunnery regiment in Iceland.
He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his "public and political service" in 1963.