As a cricket player, Palairet was overshadowed by his brother, Lionel, who played for the same two first-class sides and was regarded as one of the stylish batsmen of the 1890s and the early 1900s.

Richard Palairet's first-class record indicates that he was a useful right-handed batsman, but probably no more than useful: as a schoolboy at Repton he had been more successful than Lionel, but a soccer injury at Oxford restricted his movement and his fluency.

His highest was 156 against Sussex at the County Ground, Taunton in 1896 when he put on 249 for the second wicket with his brother, who made 154.

Palairet played his last first-class match in 1902, but came back into the game as secretary of Surrey from 1920 to 1932.

He served in India including Waziristan (1919) between 1914 and 1919 with the 2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment during the First World War.