[2][3] In 1903 he joined the office of Robert Lorimer as an assistant, and in 1906 he travelled south to study English church woodwork with Aymer Vallance.

Richardson, as secretary of the Ancient Monuments Board, opposed the design, and was able to defeat the scheme partly by erecting a canvas mock-up of the memorial.

[4] During the next two decades, he travelled throughout Scotland, inspecting and cataloguing ancient remains, and in many cases making arrangements to take privately owned monuments into public care - in all over 90.

Monuments included cairns and stone circles; churches; grave slabs; castles; a water-mill; and wall paintings.

As well as preserving and presenting ancient monuments, Richardson planned and designed the Museum in the Commendator's House at Melrose Abbey.

[3] Richardson withdrew from architectural practice in 1942, gave up teaching at the Edinburgh College of Art in 1946, and retired from his position as Inspector of Ancient Monuments in 1948.

He gave a series of lectures on The Mediaeval stone carver in Scotland (not published until 1964),[9] was involved in the establishment of the Burgh Museum in North Berwick (opened in 1957) and was often consulted on restorations, in particular by the Queen Mother regarding the Castle of Mey and the garden at Pitmmedden for the National Trust.