Ahmed Ali (also recorded as Ali Ahmed) was born around 1888, of Syrian or Lebanese origin. By 1912 he was living in Buenos Aires, in the Pampas region of Argentina, where he worked as a general labourer.
Ahmed boarded the Titanic as a third class passenger at Southampton on 10 April 1912, holding ticket number SOTON/O.Q. 3101311, for a fare of £7 1s. Little further detail survives about his family background or the precise reason for his journey, which was likely a return to, or continuation of, his life in Argentina after time abroad.
Ahmed died when the Titanic sank on 15 April 1912, at around 24 years of age. His body, if recovered, was never identified.
This artwork by Dodo Newman commemorates Ahmed Ali, one of the many third class passengers of Middle Eastern origin who built new lives in the Americas and whose story is otherwise only sparsely documented in the historical record.
Sources: Encyclopedia Titanica.
