Zimpel was born on 25 February 1859 in Pesth, Hungary, to David Zimpel and his wife Anna. The family moved to Constantinople, Turkey when Zimpel was 5. Following the death of his parents, Zimpel emigrated to London with his brother Adolf and his sister Klara. Having been exposed to the furniture industry while in the Ottoman Empire, Zimpel found employment as an art furniture manufacturer under John Stringer.
In 1884, Zimpel moved to Perth where he was selected to work in John Grave's Federal Furniture Factory. On 2 February 1886, he married Frances Nellie Harland at St George's Anglican Cathedral in Perth. They had eight children. Zimpels later set up his own wholesale and retail furniture business which became the largest in Western Australia with some one hundred workers as its employees.[1]
