Samuel was born on 19 May 1918 in Stepney, London to Polish born father Hyman and London born mother Rachel nee Simberg. Samuel had three older siblings, Pearl, Isidore and Louis and a younger brother Bernard. Both Louis and Bernard were born with cerebral palsy but were both able to work and eventually set up with their father a funeral company. In 1950 when the British Embalmer’s Society was formed, Louis sat the examinations and gained top marks, and became the first Jewish embalmer in the UK.

By 1921, the family had moved to 127 Sussex Street, Brighton where Hyman purchased a former slaughter house and butchers in Trafalgar Road and set up an automobile engineering business making body parts and metal work for cars alongside his son Samuel. Later he was chosen to repair the copper domes at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. Information from ‘We’re Not All Rothschilds’ by Leila Abrahams and Richard at IWM.

Samuel joined the RAF in 1937 and was at home during the 1939 Register at 14 Trafalgar Street in Brighton. The Register states that both Samuel and his brother Louis worked in the metal trade and had both enlisted in the RAFVR and their sister Pearl was a theatre booking clerk and an ARP clerk.

Samuel was the observer in Beaufort L9946 which was returning from a sucessful mission to Den Helder. A relative of the pilot James Moore has written, ‘Pilot officer James Victor Moore was the pilot of Beaufort L9946 on 23/11/1940. He, and his crew, were returning from a successful mission to Den Helder when one engine failed. The aircraft quickly began to lose height but the pilot managed to get back before, finally, crash landing near Southwold Suffolk. Unfortunately, one crew member (Sgt S Goldberg) chose to bail out and died before he could be picked up. All other crew members survived.’