Born in Egremont, Cheshire, Samuel John 'Lamorna' Birch was largely self-taught as an artist.

He first visited Cornwall in the late 1880s and settled in the Lamorna Valley in 1892. Birch was among the first of the second generation of artists to arrive in Cornwall and played a key role in forming the Lamorna colony, which included Alfred Munnings, Laura Knight, and Harold Knight.

Birch exhibited more than 200 works at the Royal Academy, and his art was shown widely throughout the UK and abroad.