FROM the frontline to the farm, to Swan Hill’s council chambers and finally a published author, the diverse life of Woorinen North’s Captain Samuel Storer is certainly a story to behold.
Born in 1896 at Carapooee West, near St Arnaud, he was just 19 years old when he enlisted for war.
In a book about his frontline experience, he describes a “great wave of loyalty” to the royal family at the time that saw young men sign up in droves.
“I was just under the age of 20 years when I enlisted, and so off to camp, a somewhat undersized, nervous and I must admit, perhaps an ignorant youth, but aglow with patriotism for my country,” Mr Storer wrote.
“After only 10 days in camp, I was sent home on final leave, as we were about to be rushed overseas.”
He headed off to war on March 14, 1916 — one month after enlisting.
He spent three years and 10 months at war, serving in Egypt, France and Belgium, before returning to Australia.
Following the war, he was one of nearly 12,000 ex-soldiers to take up the offer of land with the Victorian Government under the Soldier Settlement Scheme.
The scheme was a way to get returned servicemen back into work, allocating small plots of land for them to farm.
Mr Storer chose a 40 acre plot at Woorinen North, farming dried fruits with his wife Queenie.
His nephew, Barry Harvey, remembers life helping out on the farm, with Mr Storer teaching him farming techniques and later serving as an inspiration to take up shearing as a career.
“He was a bit of a rough diamond, a lovely bloke, he was always helping some kid out somewhere,” Mr Harvey said.
“When he came back out of the first war… he paid for the farm, he paid it right off within a few years.”
But it was not an easy life on the farm, with the end of the war also coming with a tough economic climate which eventually descended in to the Depression.
These tough conditions led many farmers to walk off their land, with Mr Storer buying three additional blocks, pulling out the vines and replacing them with lucerne and pasture.
He later served in World War II, training battalions before they headed off to war.
Following WWII, Mr Storer sold his block at Woorinen North, moving to Swan Hill.
Working at The Guardian as an advertising manager he was elected to local government with the Swan Hill Borough Council, serving as Mayor between 1956 and 1957.
Mr Storer passed away in his early 80’s, when Mr Harvey was about 40 years old.
“The last conversation I had with him, there was a picture of Queenie [Sam’s wife] in a maroon dress the night she won matron of the ball,” Mr Harvey said.
“I said to Sam: ‘mate she must have been something’, and he said: ‘yes Charlie, absolutely magnificent’.
“He said if his heart didn’t play up again he’d like to go fishing some time so we teed up for April.
“The next day he had his tea, sat down, put his head back and he was gone.”
