Richards was born in
Antony, Cornwall, the son of Captain G. S. Richards, and joined the
Royal Navy in 1832. His eldest son,
George Edward Richards also became a Royal Navy officer and hydrographic surveyor.
Naval career He served in South America, the
Falkland Islands, New Zealand, Australia and in the
First Opium War in China. Promoted to captain in 1854, from 1857 to 1864 he was in command of the two survey ships: and .
Survey work in Canada He was the second British commissioner to the
San Juan Islands Boundary Commission and a
hydrographer on the coast of
British Columbia in 1857–1862. He is responsible for the selection and designation of dozens of placenames along the British Columbia coast. In the
Vancouver area, for example, he named
False Creek. In 1859, after his engineer
Francis Brockton found a vein of coal, he named
Brockton Point and the area of
Coal Harbour. In 1860, he named
Mount Garibaldi after
Giuseppe Garibaldi. Other landmarks in the area named by him are the
Britannia Range, and
Brunswick Mountain and many features in the
Howe Sound,
Sunshine Coast, and
Jervis Inlet areas. In 1863 he was appointed Hydrographer to the Navy and held that position until 1874 when he retired. At a time when the merchant navy was expanding rapidly and telegraphic underwater cable laying operations were intensifying, the Admiralty had a great need for more accurate ocean charts. It was in this context that Richards was asked to organise the scientific cruises of the H.M.S. Porcupine and the H.M.S. Lightning between 1868 and 1870, followed by that of the
H.M.S. Challenger. == Later life ==