Nicholas Akien was born in Sunderland, County Durham, on 14 May 1917, the son of William Frederick Akien (a rivetter in the Hawthorn Leslie Shipyard) and Elizabeth Jane Akien (née Scanlan). At the time of the 1921 Census the Akien family were living at 4, Whitehouse Place, Sunderland and Nicholas was noted as the youngest of the five Akien children (two daughters and three sons).

He joined the Royal Navy as a Stoker in 1936 and, after training, he served in the battleship HMS RODNEY and the Repair Ship HMS HERMES before joining submarines. He was drafted to HMS DOLPHIN ‘for Submarine Training’. The date of his draft to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS CYCLOPS at Harwich ‘for Submarine HMS STERLET’ is not available but on 15 April 1940 he was serving in STERLET when it attacked and sank the German Gunnery Ship BRUMMER in Oslo Fiord in Norway.  The submarine was lost with all hands on 18 April 1940 probably resulting from an attack by a German anti-submarine Flotilla.

Nicholas Akien, of 2, Carlyon Street, Stockton Road, Sunderland, is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial on Panel 40 Column 3.