[1] Lambourn was born in Rotherhithe in London and in 1916 joined the Royal Naval Air Service with whom he trained as an observer, while attached to a squadron based in Scotland during World War I.
[6] At the start of World War Two, Lambourn joined the Red Cross and went to France, working in an ambulance unit as part of the British Expeditionary Force, in early 1940.
Often using prisoners of war as well as British troops as his labour force, Lambourn decorated canteens and other facilities as the Allies advanced through North Africa, Italy and then into Austria.
[8] During the advance, Lambourn made several paintings of the refugees he encountered and a small number of these works were purchased by the War Artists' Advisory Committee.
[3] His painting of Yukio Tani, in the ownership of The Budokai, was restored by Lucia Scalisi during an August 2018 episode of the BBC Television programme The Repair Shop.