 In his first job he worked for John Fowler's, a highly respected engineering firm in Leeds before later joining the Royal Navy.He married Emily Boyd Sykes at the Mint Chapel, Holbeck, Leeds on 23 October 1906 and they moved to Gillingham in Kent when Lumley was based at nearby Chatham Dockyard which at the time was almost exclusively dedicated to the Royal Navy.During his time in the Navy, Lumley was on HMS "Aboukir" when it was sunk in the North Sea, along with two other ships, during World War I, and he spent several hours in the sea before he was rescued.