 His father was a Commissioner in Bankruptcy, and his mother (Lady Maria Walpole) was a daughter of Horatio Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford.His brother, Sir Algernon West, was Principal Private Secretary to Prime minister William Ewart Gladstone.Richard West was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and was appointed as a Student of Christ Church (the equivalent of a Fellow at other colleges) in 1848, a position that he held until 1875.