Birch was a landscape painter in oils and watercolour, born in 1869 in Egremont, Cheshire. He began working as an office-boy, before doing industrial design work for Lancashire cotton-mills whilst painting at the same time. He was predominantly self taught, except for a period of time which he spent at the Atelier Colaossi, Paris, in 1895. He settled at St Buryan in 1897, then at Lamorna in 1902 (he took the name Lamorna to distinguish himself from another painter called Birch working at Newlyn). He exhibited at the R.A. from 1892, at the A.R.A. from 1926, the R.A. in 1934, and the R.W.S. in 1914. He exhibited at the Fine Art Society from 1906, and at the Greatorex Galleries. He painted in New Zealand in 1937, and died in January 1955 in Lamorna.
