Lumsdon aspired young to be a newspaper cartoonist, but worked first in retail and then in the advertising department at Hustler’s store in Maitland. During world war II he worked in the Newcastle camouflage unit and spent two years in New Guinea where he sold is drawings on postcards to American troops.

In 1942 his first 'Basil' cartoons first appeared in the South Coast Times, Wollongong Argus, Muswellbrook Chronicle and Gippsland Times.

After the war he trained at East Sydney Technical College and began drawing covers and cartoons for girlie magazines such as Quiz.

From 1946, he was staff cartoonist for The Newcastle Morning Herald and he became a household name in the Hunter. He published five volumes of his collected cartoons.

Lumsdon retired in August 1977 and died later that year.