My paternal grandfather, William Thomas Sammels was born in Cornwall on 5 April 1893. He was one of the five children of Frederick Sammels and Clara Doney.
William had various jobs in Cornwall, from stable hand, labourer and fishmonger. He met Emily Chowings when they respectively worked as a stable hand/groom and nanny in Burrington Manor in Cornwall. He signed up for service and was a Gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery (British) serving in Egypt, France and Belgium in World War One. He suffered from acute trench fever in the war and almost died from it and was sent to Ireland recuperate. Returning to Cornwall after the war, he trained polo ponies and he and Emily became engaged. William married Emily on 6 or 7 January 1922 in Pennycross, Devon. At the time of their marriage, William had a fish round and were considering if they would start a fish shop. Before this could occur, word came through that they were accepted on the Group Settler scheme in Australia. On 17 March 1922, they departed from London on the RMS Ormuz bound for Australia (Fremantle, Western Australia). I've found a site with all of the transcripts of British migrants during this period, and the Ormuz is listed here (pay to view site). My grandparents are listed on p8 of the 17 March 1922 transcript as W & E Samuels, passengers 714 and 715. They have a registered address of Burrington, Crownhill, Plymouth. According to this register there were 793 passengers on the ship; 701 adults, 88 children (1-12) and 4 infants. The ship traveled via the Suez Canal to Australia.
William and Emily landed in Fremantle on 22 April 1922. Women and men were apparently segregated into separate bunk style sections of the ship with little or no privacy during the voyage. I'm unsure of the chances, but 213 days (30 weeks) after landing my Aunt Ivy Mabel Veronica was born (25 November 1922). In all possibility, Emily was pregnant when she stepped onto the ship - what a wonderful voyage, sea and morning sickness!
Stepping back a bit, Emily and William worked temporarily at the Flying Angel Club in Fremantle prior to relocating to Margaret River. William moved down and took possession of their land in November 1922, just before the birth of Ivy Mabel Veronica. Emily joined William on their land just over a month later, after the birth of their first child. William and Emily were part of the Group Settler Scheme set up by the Western Australian government to encourage expansion of the Margaret River area. According to the records at the National Archives ( Series No A786 X22/5 Part 1), William and Emily were assigned to Settlement 22 (Rosa Brook) and were allocated plot number 1914. On the archival records, plot 1914 was initially being shared by the Tracey and Marshall families. My nana told me that times were hard and when she was picked up by grandpa from Busselton after leaving hospital and traveling down there, they traveled in the horse and cart for what seemed like ages and then they all of a sudden stopped in the middle of the forest. Grandpa announced "We're here" and nana replied "Where"? Settlers were allocated a number of implements, rations and given a stipend. The major implements were to be shared amongst the settlers and a list of what was given out to each family can be found here (from the NAA). There is a memorial in Rosa Brook set up to the settlers and William is listed on this (as B Sammels - Bill).
While in Rosa Brook, two other children were born - Reginald William (17 March 1925) and Frederick Ronald (27 November 1927). The NAA records show that they resigned this plot on 11 April 1928. I believe that they then worked on the construction of the railways around Gnowangerup. They lived in a hessian tent and Emily took in 'boarders' - doing laundry and feeding single men who were working on the crews for a fee. When Emily fell pregnant with Joyce, they were re-included in another group settler post in Margaret River on 21 January 1929. Group Settlement 64 I was told was called Forest Grove, but NAA records show it as Arumvale. William and Emily, and the two children took up plot 2707. They stayed here until 1932 and had three more children - Joyce Mary (1929), Muriel Evelyn (1931) and Joan Emily (27 July 1932).
By 1933/34 they had given up on this venture and relocated back to Perth and continued to raise a growing family - Rosslyn Henry (26 September 1934) and Douglas Roy - my dad (1935). An another anecdote about William was when Emily was in hospital having one of her last children, William decided to cook rice for his kids. He put so much rice in to boil that it kept overflowing and he scooped the overflowing rice into other pots and the children's plates. At best count he ended up with four pots of rice to feed his family that night. Variously living in Welshpool, East Perth, Gosnells and East Victoria Park. Listed as a labourer, William signed up for military service on 22 November 1939 and served as a Home Guard based at Karrakatta, Swanbourne and Claremont in Western Australia. His service and casualty record has an entry dated 12 August 1944 that notes "Medical Classification - Classified as B2 (Feet Vision)... Restricted marching, unable to shoot". William served till the end of the war and was discharged from service on 28 September 1945.
Nana worked in a munitions factory during the war and pretty much financed the purchase of their house in Willis St as grandpa went about financing the Balmoral Hotel. Grandpa worked as a Marine Dealer (recycling), tending horses, digging sewerage trenches for the the Water Board and as a night watchman. They both lived there until their deaths. William died in Perth on his birthday, 5 April 1965 at the age of 72.
More on Emily Chowings
This is the research dad has done tracing the Sammels tree. Direct line ancestors are in bold. 
