Since there was another artist of the same surname, Lionel Birch (October 31^st), his close friend, Stanhope Forbes (November 18^th) nicknamed him ‘Lamorna’ after his village of residence and which was a frequent subject of his works.  

Self taught but with a brief period studying at the Académie Colarossi in Paris in 1895, Birch settled in Lamorna (1892) and when married he and his wife, Houghton ‘Mouse’ Emily Vivian, moved to Flagstaff Cottage in Lamorna Cove. Lamorna first exhibited at the Royal Academy at the age of 24 and over his lifetime he exhibited two hundred paintings there. 

He had an enormous appetite for his work and it has been estimated that he produced at least an extraordinary 20,000 paintings.