Born in 1858 at Bramshall, nr Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, Lionel and his wife Constance Mary BIRCH built their own home 'La Pietra' in Newlyn. The artist assisted with tuition in the early days of the Forbes School of Painting. Crozier (1904) noted: "An important feature of student life at Newlyn is the sketching class, which meets on three afternoons a week, under the able direction of Mr Lionel Birch, himself an artist of no mean repute and a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy."   

Birch also served as the Vicar's Senior Warden at St Peter's Church, Newlyn, and wrote a feature for the Parish Magazine called 'Notes from the Studios'. In the NAG exhibitions over the years he exhibited well, and in October 1898 sold two paintings to the Bonham Carter family staying at the Queens Hotel in Penzance. The couple moved to Whimple in about 1911, and later Ottery St Mary in Devon. He died, age 71, on April 16, 1930, in Ewell, near Epsom, Surrey (GRO), his wife having predeceased him.