Richard Pares was born on the 25 August 1902 in Colchester, England, and educated at Winchester, and Balliol College, Oxford. After working for a year as an assistant lecturer at University College London, Pares undertook a year of research in the United States and the West Indies financed by a Laura Spelman Rockefeller memorial studentship (1928). In 1929 he was appointed as a lecturer at New College, Oxford (1929-1940) and from 1938-1939 was Junior Proctor. During World War II, Pares served with distinction as an administrative-class civil servant in the Board of Trade (1940-1945); he was appointed CBE in 1945. He was joint editor of the English Historical Review (1939-1958), Professor of History at the University of Edinburgh (1945-1954), and Ford's Lecturer in English History at the University of Oxford (1951-1952). He was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1948. Pares died in Oxford on the 3 May 1958. Compiled with reference to the Dictionary of National Biography.