Born in Tipperary, Ireland, Richard Nash was the son of Gerald and Margaret Nash. He was educated at University College Dublin, and came to England to specialise in surgery, doing a number of registrar jobs in London before taking the FRCS in 1951. He went to Canada in 1952, practising in Fort Garry, Winnipeg, where he was on the staff of the Misericorida and Victoria General Hospitals. He had five children by his wife Mary: Diarmuid, Richard, Patricia, Aideen and Eileen. He retired from practice in 1992 and died from cancer on 5 May 2000.