Shmuel was born in Jaffa on September 4,1909 to Hinda Ayala and Yoseph-Zvi, a rabbinical court president. Shmuel studied at the ‘Geula School of Commerce’. He had a nationalist-Jewish upbringing, joined Beitar, and participated in organizing blowing the shofar at the Western Wall 1929.

He was a Hagana member, then changed to Hagana-Bet, and became a member of Etzel. He knew Yair personally (who stayed in his home a while during the persecutions). When Etzel split he followed Yair joining Lehi. He was a founder of the ‘Zvulun Seamen’s Union’. During a sailing trip he was captured by the Syrians, and did several weeks jail-time in Syria.

He was a member of ‘Brit- Hachayal’, one of the founders of the country’s first flying club, among the organizers of ‘Aliya-Bet’ and wrote articles about sea security. In 1938 he was arrested by the British, suspected of Etzel membership and imprisoned in Akko. That year he married Rachel Lipman. They had a daughter, Nili, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. From early childhood on, he was fluent in Arabic, often using this skill. When Arab killings cruelly restarted in 1947 after the UN partition resolution, he planned means of retaliation.

Shmuel directed negotiations with the headmen of ‘Sheikh-Munis’ and ‘Jalil’, demanding  they collect all weapons from their residents. After an armed Jewish force patrolled near their villages, all the Arab residents abandoned their homes. In early 1948 Shmuel went to Europe on behalf of the underground to purchase arms and organize  transporting them back to Eretz Yisrael via sea.

In 1953 Shmuel was arrested for being a member of a Hebrew underground and spent three months in prison. Shmuel swam in the sea every morning year-round.  In 1976, returning from the beach, he was hit by a passing car. He passed away on July 28,1981 and was laid to rest in the Holon cemetery.