[1][2] He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and studied civil engineering at the University of Edinburgh as well as geology under Robert Jameson.

[3] In 1838 he joined the ordnance survey in Ireland as a chief assistant under Joseph Ellison Portlock who was studying the geology of Londonderry and neighbourhood.

Portlock wrote of him whenever I have required his aid … I have found him possessed of the highest intelligence and the most unbounded zealHe discovered radiating fans shaped impressions in the town of Bray in 1840.

Richard showed in 1906 the arrival patterns of waves and suggested that the core of the earth was liquid.

Oldham resigned from his position in India in 1876 on the grounds of poor health and retired to Rugby in England.