In his early twenties Richards moved to Burnie, Tasmania to manage a copper mine before returning to Moonta, where he married Ada Dixon on 31 January 1914.

[1] A lay Methodist preacher, Freemason and keen cricketer and Australian rules footballer, Richards was a popular and well known local identity and it came as no surprise when he sought Labor preselection.

Without public or party support, Richards found himself leading his ministry into an election that, by most accounts, he had virtually no chance of winning.

Richards remained opposition leader for 11 years, during which Labor increased its primary vote at three consecutive elections.

However, due to the Playmander, Labor was only able to net a five-seat swing in this election, leaving it with 16 seats, four short of victory.

He returned from Nauru to Adelaide in 1951; served as director of radio station 5KA, then under Methodist control; and was appointed to the South Australian government Forestry Board in 1954.

Afflicted by diabetes, Richards nonetheless lived long enough to see a Labor government returned to South Australia (under the leadership of Premier Frank Walsh) in 1965.