[1][6] In 1933, he won the Goodenough Medal for gunnery, and he also received the Robert Megaw Memorial Prize for 1932–1933, awarded to the sub-lieutenant achieving the highest marks in the examinations for lieutenant.

He was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in 1940 for his actions while serving in HMS Achilles during the Battle of the River Plate.

His citation read:Lieutenant Richard E. Washbourn, ... who, when early in the action several splinters struck the Gun Director Tower, at once killing three men and wounding two others inside the tower, though wounded on the head by a splinter which half stunned him and killed the man behind him, continued to control the main armament with the utmost coolness.

He set a magnificent example to the rest of the Director Tower crew, who all stood to their posts and made light of the incident.

[1] On 27 March 1943, he married June Beatrice Medwin Herapath at St Mary Abbots in Kensington, London,[9][10] and the couple went on to have two children.

[1][14] In 1964, Washbourn purchased the bell of HMS Chevron from the Rosyth Dockyard for £8, and donated it to Collingwood District High School the following year.