Samuel Ackerley was born in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England on 6 September 1887. He was one of thirteen children born to William Ackerley, a mariner, and Emily Elizabeth Ward. 

Ackerley went to sea as a young man and served as an assistant ship’s cook aboard numerous voyages of the Ivernia between 1908 and 1911; by 1911 the family address was 60 Wykeham Street in Kirkdale but Samuel was not listed, perhaps at sea at the time.

In April 1912 Ackerley was serving as a ship’s cook aboard the eastward-bound voyage of the Carpathia when that ship rescued the survivors of the Titanic. 

Samuel continued to serve at sea during WWI and in the following years; in January 1917 he married Lucy Westell (b. 1892) and with her had three daughters. Widowed in 1938, Ackerley was remarried to Ada Ridings but was left a widower again when Ada died in December 1953 aged 65.

Samuel Ackerley died in his caravan in Maldon, Essex in 1970 at the age of 82.

He is buried in Bootle Cemetery, Bootle, Sefton, Merseyside, Liverpool, Consecrated Section 6, Row 16.