He was educated at Cothill House and Rugby School and gained a scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
When the Japanese were threatening India with air raids, he was sent by the Friends' Ambulance to advise because of the expertise he had already gained.
[2] Richard Symonds served in the United Nations and was Resident Representative in various countries including Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), Greece, Yugoslavia and Tunisia.
After a period as a professorial fellow at Sussex University, he returned to Oxford and to Queen Elizabeth House.
His last book was In the Margins of Independence, a semi-autographical account of his life as a relief worker on the Indian continent.