He spent ten years as an Able Seaman in the Merchant Navy, before resuming studies as a mature student at the New Battle Abbey College.
[2] Lummis was a historical consultant to The Bounty Hunters, a television documentary on the work of a team from James Cook University, Queensland, which was diving on the wreck of HMS Bounty and doing other archeological work on Pitcairn Island.
After working as research assistant on Family Life and Work Experience before 1918, he was senior research officer on The Family and Community Life of East Anglian Fishermen (Social Science Research Council grant HR 2656/1), which focused in particular on the working environment and its effect on industrial and community relations.
He subsequently worked on The Systematic Analysis of Life Histories (Social Science Research Council grant HR 7841), which coded oral interviews for computer archiving and analysis.
During the above period he taught on the Social History courses both at undergraduate and graduate level.