Ernest Andrew Samuels (14 Aug 1950 - 12 Jun 2025)

This page has been set up In loving memory of Ernest Andrew Samuels who sadly passed away on 12th June 2025

Ernie was a beloved dad, husband, brother, uncle, grandad, great grandad, and loyal friend to so many.

Born in Kinglassie , Scotland , in August 1950 to Grace and Albert Samuels, Ernie grew up for his first 7 years in Scotland, lived in north London until moving to Basildon where he grew up with his siblings Tom, Ann, Pretoria, George, William and Richard.

He married Janet in 1969 and had three children , Paul, Joanne and Leon. They settled in Basildon and eventually moved to Benfleet in the late 70s. This house became his loving home and the setting of many happy years and memories.

Ernie started to look for adventures at an early age and after working in the post office and local newsagents, he looked further afield, taking on long distance Haulage driving to places like Pakistan, Irak and many places in the middle east including Turkey. When returning to England he became an ice-cream van driver, enjoying supplying the local neighbourhood with ice-cream to the delight of his own kids, who even started to hide their bounty under their beds. He joined the French Foreign Legion and fought in Afrika for 3 months. He also worked on oil rigs in Saudi Arabia, developing his life long love for scuba diving. He became one of the first long haul drivers and loved exploring the world, meeting new people and cultures. He made many friends on the way and seemed to outlive the majority of them. Some beautiful friendships remained close to him throughout his life.

On one of his journeys he met Moni, who eventually became his second wife in 1990. They had two children, Lotte and Ben, who then grew up in close company of his granddaughter Chrissie, creating lots of happy times on holidays and at the Benfleet home. More grandchildren started to come, Raymond, Dylan, Connor, Martina, Annie-May and Jack and Lily. Eventually he was blessed with 5 great grandchildren Gracie, Jacob, Finlay, Skylar and Daisy with another one on the way.

Ernie eventually settled down and stopped driving, taking over and running a yard for long haul haulage in East London. The yard later moved to Rainham and then to Pitsea. Many of his family members worked in the yard with him, he was always proud to be able to provide a living for his children and brothers. his adventurous nature made him open a burger van in one of the yards, where he enjoyed cooking his famous stews and curries.

Ernie and Moni loved to travel and show their children the world. From Spain to Turkey to Mexico, Egypt and Bali, cruising down the Nile, a road trip in Morocco and many holidays in Essaouira with their friends and family. Their last holiday abroad was in Tunisia and the last caravan stay was in Whitstable with the dogs.

Ernie and Moni have many friends who will hold him dear in their memories with a little smile on their faces about his mischievous ways.

His family supports Arsenal football club and Ernie was an avid supporter himself. He enjoyed watching the games, betting or discussing their successes or losses.

Many friends and family stayed and lived at his house, and also it was always inhabited by animals, cats, dogs, guineapigs, hamsters, a rabbit and many birds and wildlife in their garden. Moni loves their garden and Ernie loved joining in growing his own potatoes in tubs arranged round his shed. As a smoker, this shed became his second home, where he spent many happy hours arranging his tools, adding to his coin collections or watching films on his phone. This was also a great hiding place for anything he did not want to be seen, especially a bottle of scotch or savings for his next holiday. The garden also became a wonderful setting for Easter egg hunts with the grandchildren, birthday parties a farewell party for Ben when he left for Saudi Arabia and many BBQs.

Ernie loved scuba diving and took Ben on holidays teaching him how to be safe and enjoy the treasures of the sea. He also loved playing poker and joined a regular group of players, where he made many good friends.

Sadly Ernie lost his son Leon in 2021 to cancer. No words can express how much this affected him.

Throughout his life, he seemed to be accident prone and many hospital stays fixed him back together. There were lots of times when the odds seemed to be against him, but every time he fought back and recovered from very traumatic injuries and operations. Moni called him a "Jack in the box", coming back every time and saying: I am still here for another day. In the last 5 weeks of his life, he was able to watch his daughter Lotte's wedding from his hospital bed. When he came home for end of life care, he got a new lease of life given by all the visitors coming to see him daily. Part of that lease of life was that he was able to smoke and enjoy hiding the amount of cigarettes he was having from Moni. He never gave up and wanted to be able to share all of his collections with his children and grandchildren, giving out coins, watches, tools and lighters in little gift bags for them all. He seemed to be surrounded by enormous amounts of love and kindness in those final days and was giving out love to everyone he came in contact with. He was determined to be alert to the very end, and finally relaxed in the presence of his four children and Moni.

Ernie's family would like to thank all of you for your kindness, care and prayers over the last days, months and years.

All are welcome to join us in celebrating Ernie''s life on Thursday 3rd July at the Pitsea Crematorium at 3.30pm. The wake will be held at the Castle pub in Hadleigh, SS72PB. It would be lovely if you were not to wear black. Moni would like to invite you to celebrate his life in white or any other colour you wish. There is a button below to let the family know if you are attending.

In lieu of flowers, Ernie's family would like to ask that you donate this money instead to a collection for Daws Heath Kennel who had given them a number of rescue dogs that created many wonderful times in Ernie’s life.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/monika-samuels-1?utm_medium=FA&utm_source=CL