Gardner reports that he recently (1910/1911) was in correspondence with Mr Deeble, who furnished him with the following details.

Samuel Deeble arrived in Melbourne on the Walmer Castle on August 28, 1853. According to Gardner he opened a shop in Bourke Street, 'next to the Herald passage,' soon after arriving.

Butterfield's 1854 Directory lists his address as 159 Little Lonsdale Street East, one of two addresses he operated from before taking up premises in London House, next to the Herald Passage in 159 Bourke Street East in 1858. He ceased trading there in 1863 and went to Ballarat where he was an auctioneer and mining agent until 1872. During the ten years he was working in Melbourne Deeble also occupied premises at 171 Stephen Street (1855), 189 Bourke Street East (1856-1858), 213 Bourke Street East (1861), and 9 Bourke Street East (1862-1863). In 1864 the business was continued by Joseph Deeble, but both Joseph and the Business disappeared the following year.

In 1858 Deeble advertised in the Sands and McDougall Melbourne Directory, describing himself as a wholesale and retail draper, specalising in millinery including 'Bonnets, Hats, Bonnet Shapes, Blonds, Ribbons, Feathers &c., at wholesale prices.' In a small advertisement in The Argus, 22 November 1861, he simply declared 'S. Deeble's Drapery SALE - Great SALE of REMNANTS THIS DAY.' The lack of any identifying address suggests that Deeble had established a well known business.

According to Gardner, Deeble went to Boort when he left Melbourne, and then to Inglewood. In 1910-1911, nearly sixty years after arriving in Victoria, he was still working as 'an auctioneer, official assignee, and mining and insurance agent.'

Deeble issued four penny tokens, all in 1862, with a range of Stokes' stock reverses, bearing the address 'London House, Bourke Street'.

References:
Gardner, F. (1911). 'Trade tokens and the firms who issued them.' The Australian Storekeepers and Traders Journal. 31 January, p.14,
PROV internet index to unassisted immigrants to Victoria, 1852 - 1923, VPRS 7666.
Sharples, J. (1993). 'Catalogue of Victorian Trade Tokens.' Journal of the Numismatic Association of Australia. Vol. 7, December, pp.34-35.
Advertisement, Sands and McDougall Melbourne Directory for 1858, unnumbered page.
Advertisement, The Argus, 22 November 1861, p.8.
Hope, John (2005). Biography of S. Deeble, unpublished MSS, 1pp.

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