Soon after leaving the Slade he was employed by Edward Gordon Craig to be his musical director at his theatre school in Italy, but the position was cut short by the outbreak of the First World War.
Lee served with the Queen's Westminster Rifles in the Machine Gun Corps and suffered shell shock following the 1918 Spring Offensive.
Between 1919 and 1922 he collaborated closely with Paul and John Nash producing wood engravings for the Sun Calendar Yearbook and the Poetry Bookshop.
At this period his paintings and wood engravings were bought by notable collectors such as Arnold Bennett, Roger Fry and Edward Marsh.
He was Chairman of the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries and worked tirelessly to encourage the modern movement in England.