The response of a liquid scintillator (EJ-301) to monoenergetic electrons tagged by Compton back scattered γ-rays has been measured using various radioactive γ-ray sources. It is observed that the measured electron response is linear up to an energy of ∼4 MeV. The resolution of the liquid scintillator at an energy 1 MeVee is found to be ∼ 11%. The pulse shape discrimination and pulse height response of the liquid scintillator for neutrons have been measured using the 7Li(p,n1)7Be*(0.429 MeV) reaction. A nonlinear response to mono-energetic neutrons for the liquid scintillator is observed at energies En=5.3 MeV, 9.0 MeV and 12.7 MeV. In addition, the measured response of the liquid scintillator for electrons and neutrons has been compared with simulated results obtained using the Monte Carlo based Geant4 toolkit.