He was educated at Talgarth County Primary School, Bedales School in Hampshire (a progressive independent school), Seale-Hayne Agricultural College, where he studied for a National Diploma in Agriculture, and Reading University, where he gained the degree of M.Sc. in agricultural management.

Richard Livsey had enjoyed a rich and varied life before entering the House of Commons in 1985 at the age of 51. He had worked as a farm labourer at Bwlch in Carmarthenshire. In 1961 he had moved to Galloway in Scotland to work for a year as an Assistant Farm Manager on one of the ICI company's farms; this was when he met Rene, his future wife. He was then transferred to Northumberland where he worked as ICI's agricultural development officer for the next five years. When Richard left ICI, it was to return to Scotland to become Farm Manager of the Blair Drummond Estate in Perthshire. He was subsequently a senior lecturer in Farm Management at the Welsh Agricultural College, Llanbadarn Fawr, near Aberystwyth from 1971 until 1985, initially under the leadership of Dr David Morris. Livsey had played an important role in the setting up of the pioneering college. He and his wife also farmed some sixty acres of land at Llanon in Cardiganshire. He was Deputy Director, subsequently Development Manager, at ATB-Landbase Cymru from 1992 until 1997 when he was not in parliament.

Livsey had first joined the Liberal Party in 1960. He stood unsuccessfully as the party's candidate for Perth and East Perthshire in 1970 (where he came fourth and lost his deposit), Pembrokeshire in 1979, and Brecon and Radnor in 1983, when he came third. He entered the House of Commons, with a slim majority of 559 votes, as the Liberal MP for highly marginal Brecon and Radnor seat following a key by-election on 4 July 1985 held on the death of the sitting Conservative MP Tom Hooson. It was the largest and the most rural constituency in the whole of Wales, and the one with the highest concentration of sheep numbers. He was re-elected in the 1987 general election, but now with an even slimmer majority, determined after several recounts, of 56 votes, on this occasion over the Conservatives. On his return to Parliament he was appointed the Liberal Democrat's Shadow Secretary of State for Wales. He served as Liberal Party spokesman on agriculture, 1985-87, and as Alliance spokesman on agriculture and the countryside and on Welsh Affairs, 1987-92. He also served as the Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats and Party Spokesman on Wales from 1988 until 1992. He was also a member of the Welsh Select Affairs Committee.

In the 1992 general election Livsey was narrowly defeated by Conservative Jonathan Evans who captured Brecon and Radnor by the tiny majority of only 130 votes. Five years later in the 1997 general election, following a dynamic local campaign based on support for public services and small businesses and farms, Livsey was able to re-capture the seat by the impressive margin of more than 5000 votes to become one of 46 Liberal Democrat MPs in the new Parliament. In the process he delighted in ousting the sole remaining Tory MP in Wales.

Immediately following his re-election, Richard Livsey was appointed a member of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee and of the Constitution Reform Strategy Committee. He was his party's spokesman for Wales. He was awarded the CBE in 1994. He retired from parliament at the general election of 2001 and then entered the House of Lords as Baron Livsey of Talgarth. In the Upper House he was made a member of the European Environment and Rural Affairs Committee and became President of the EU Movement in Wales. He was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Powys in 2004.

As well as being a central figure in Welsh Liberal politics in the post-war era, Baron Livsey's main success was to build Brecon and Radnor into a Liberal Democrat stronghold which enabled Kirsty Williams (National Assembly Member), who became the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, and his successor Roger Williams to further strengthen the Liberal Democrat hold there.

Livsey had been a keen supporter and activist during the 1979 St David's Day referendum on a Welsh Assembly on behalf of the Yes Campaign. He continued to be central to the pro-devolution cause and was the leader of the Liberal Democrat campaign in the successful Welsh devolution referendum in 1997. He worked amicably for the cause of devolution with leading figures from the other political parties in Wales like Peter Hain, Ron Davies, Dafydd Wigley and Ieuan Wyn Jones. Livsey took to the stage alongside the then Welsh Secretary Ron Davies and the other campaign leaders as the narrow result in favour of devolution was announced. Yet, significantly, he chose to remain a member of the Westminster Parliament rather than go to the National Assembly at Cardiff bay. He was also an active member of the executive of Tomorrow's Wales / Cymru Yfory.

Richard Livsey was an extremely active as a constituency MP and remained involved with the community afterwards. One of Lord Livsey's many campaigns was the fight to save Bronllys Community Hospital, near Brecon, which has been under threat for many years. Lord Livsey also fought for a bypass for Talgarth, his home town. He was patron of and active in many of the organisations in Brecon and Radnor. He was the chair of the Brecon Jazz Festival, a patron of Brecon Cathedral, president of the Hay festival, and a member of the Talgarth Male Voice Choir with whom he sang at the Royal Albert Hall in 2009 for a Welsh Association of Male Voice Choirs concert. He was also a trustee of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales. His many interests included rugby football, fly fishing and music. He acquired a mastery of the Welsh language, and was made a Fellow of Aberystwyth University in 2007. He was very supportive of the establishment of the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences there and was a good friend of the university.

He had married on 3 April 1964 Irene Martin, the daughter of Ronald and Margaret Earsman of Castle Douglas, Galloway. They had two sons and one daughter, David, Jenny and Dougie. All four survive him. He lived at Llanfihangel Tal-y-Llyn near Brecon and died there peacefully in his sleep on 15 September 2010 aged 75 years. His funeral was held at St Gwendoline's Church, Talgarth on the 25th of September 2010. A very large collection of his political papers was presented to the Welsh Political Archive at the National Library of Wales.

Richard Livsey was a man of immense honour and decency who was loved and respected by his constituents, colleagues and by politicians of all parties. He will be remembered particularly as a champion for the rural communities in which he lived and an expert on agriculture, which he worked in all his professional life. He had a life-long passion for Welsh devolution. Regarded with much respect and great affection by all who knew him, he was a courteous and mild mannered man, lacking any pretension, but with an unwavering determination when pursuing issues about which he felt strongly.