Sir Richard Evans was born in London to Welsh parents and was educated on an Essex County Council scholarship at Forest School. He studied at Jesus and St Antony’s Colleges, Oxford.
He holds a Doctorate of Philiosophy from the University of Oxford, Doctorates of Letters from the Universities of Cambridge and East Anglia, and honorary doctorates from the Universities of Oxford and London and from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.
He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Royal Society of Literature and the Learned Society of Wales, and an Honorary Fellow of Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, Birkbeck, University of London, and Jesus College Oxford. In 2022 he was made an Honorary Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
He has been Vice-Master and Acting Master of Birkbeck, University of London, Chairman of the History Faculty in the University of Cambridge. He is currently Provost of Gresham College, City of London.
In 2000 he was Principal Expert Witness in the libel action brought by David Irving against Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books, as dramatized in the movie Denial (2016).
He holds the following positions:
- Provost of Gresham College, City of London
- Visiting Professor of History, Birkbeck University of London
- Deputy Chair, Spoliation Advisory Panel, Dept for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport