Samuel was born in 1917 in Whitechapel, London to Abraham, who worked as a tailors presser and Rosa nee Katzler. Samuel had seven siblings and his older brother Maurice was killed serving in the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, 2nd Bn. He died on 12 February 1944 and is commemorated on the Rangoon Memorial, Myanmar. Samuel’s father served in WW1 in the Royal Fusiliers.

It is thought that Samuel was killed by bombing in the Tottenham Court road area of London.