Sir John Lumsden was born in Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland, the son of John Lumsden, a bank manager, and Florence Isabella Groom Lumsden (née McKean). The father had come from Scotland via India to work in a bank in Armagh and later moved to Dublin in 1867 to work for the Provincial Bank. Lumsden's father was a keen golfer and Lumsden worked with his father and his brother in setting up a rough and ready golf course in 1885 west of the Phoenix Cricket Club, thus establishing Ireland's second oldest golf club, the Dublin Golf Club, which became the Royal Dublin Golf Club in 1891.