Sir Richard Durning Holt, a Baronet, was born on November 13, 1868, in Liverpool, Lancashire, England.

He was a British Liberal Party politician and businessman. He was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford. In 1889, he became a senior partner in his uncle Alfred Holt's shipping firm. He served in various departments to learn the business, and in 1892, he undertook an extensive tour of the Far East, becoming familiar with the work done in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. In 1895, he was promoted to manager. He entered politics in 1903 as a Liberal candidate at Liverpool West Derby but lost to William Rutherford. He lost again in the 1906 election but was finally elected in 1907 as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Hexham, Northumberland. His principal pre-1914 activity was organizing the “Holt Cave”, a group of like-minded businessmen who opposed Lloyd George's 1914 budget and social welfare legislation because they disbelieved in government interference with business. However, Holt accepted the minimum wage in 1900 and a public works programme in 1929, after first opposing it. In 1918, he was elected president of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association. Holt served as a Justice of the Peace for the county of Lancaster and received an honorary degree of LL.D from Liverpool University in 1933. In 1935, he was created a baronet for his outstanding contribution to the shipping industry and in 1936, he was elected to serve on the Liberal Party Council.

In 1897, he married Eliza Lawrence Wells (1869–1951). He died on March 22, 1941, in Liverpool, Lancashire, England.