He received a BA in History at the University of Manchester, and later a PhD from the same University, under the supervision of Barri Jones. He was then a British Academy Post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Archaeology, in Oxford until 1989. He was then Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan in the United States. At Leicester University he was first Lecturer, then Reader (1995), and most recently Professor (since 1998).

His most recent work is An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire. This work was originally supposed to be the definitive Roman book of the decade but met considerable criticism at the hands of peer reviewersHowever, De La Bédoyère's criticism should be read in the light of the near simultaneous publication of his own rival book on the same subject.

He has been part of several expeditions examining the archaeology of the Fazzan in Libya