Richard Eaton was born on 19th October 1953 in St Leonards-on-Sea. After a spell at Westerleigh School, he moved to SVS in 1967. He would go on to become head of Cornwallis and captain of both the Shooting and Fencing teams.

After leaving the School, he studied Law at Kingston Polytechnic (now Kingston University). In 1976, having completed the Law Society’s examinations, he was articled to James Simpson at Herrington Willings and Penry-Davey Solicitors. It was here that he met his future wife Marion, who invited him to join her when she set up her own firm of Barber and Co on Romney Marsh a year later. They were married in 1979.

In early 1980, the couple moved to St Leonards when Richard became Senior Legal Assistant at Rother District Council. He then decided to become a barrister and was called to the Bar of Lincoln’s Inn in 1983. That year, he also took a post as deputy head of the legal department of the City of London at the Guildhall and was granted the Freedom of the City in 1984. 

Unfortunately, the daily commute took its toll and he returned to the south coast to work at Marion’s new firm, Eaton and Co, in Hastings.  Then, in 1988 he was offered a job with the Crown Prosecution Office. He had always been interested in advocacy and this was an offer he could not refuse. Sadly in the ten-month period at the start of 1989, both Marion’s parents and Richard’s mother died. It was a difficult time, and one which ultimately changed the couple’s lives.

They decided there and then that they would live for each day, follow their hearts and spend as much time as possible together and with their daughters. As a result, Marion’s firm merged with Greys to become Eaton Sagar, freeing Richard to follow his dream of lecturing Law. He did so at The Hastings College of Law and Technology, raising the profile of Law as a subject and helping his students attain excellent results.

Alongside his lecturing, one of his passions was encouraging younger people to find their strengths and follow careers which suited them. As such, he became a careers advisor and business mentor. 

The couple also set up the Professional Centre for Holistic Health in Hastings. Although never tempted to become a therapist himself, Richard set his forensic brain to discovering evidence for the benefits of complementary medicine, his main interest being to integrate it into the NHS. He worked long and hard on projects connected to this, sitting on various councils, always looking for the facts and evidence of efficacy.

In 2006 he began to feel ill, but it wasn’t until 2008 that he was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer. That year he was given a 50:50 chance of surviving a year by consultants at Guy’s Hospital and The Royal Marsden. Nonetheless he undertook seven and a half weeks of radiotherapy and began what became a series of medications. 

His interest in complementary health meant that he was also keen to try all sorts of ‘alternative’ remedies and together he and Marion investigated and tried a good many. The result – he lived, and lived well, for another 11years. During that time he wrote two books: Owning a Business (a handbook for those who are setting up or already own a small business) and Business Guide for Health Therapists - How To Find What You Need To Know.

Eventually though, Richard’s cancer claimed him and he died on 14th June 2019 in St. Michael’s hospice, St Leonards-on-Sea, only a stone’s throw from the house in which he was born.