Ahajan Kevorke is thought to have been born in Imperial Russia in 1887.
It is not known when he emigrated to the United States of America, but he settled in New York City, where he presumably found work.
In the spring of 1915, he decided to travel back to Russia, perhaps to enlist in the army and defend his country against the Axis Powers.
As a result, for the first stage of his journey to Russia, he booked third class passage from New York to Liverpool on the Lusitania and joined the vessel at her moorings on the morning of the 1st May, before she slipped out into the North River for the very last time on her final voyage across the Atlantic.
Six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20, twelve miles off the coast of southern Ireland, and about 250 miles away from her home port.
Ahajan Kevorke was one of 69 Russian nationals on board at the time, and he was one of 40 of them who were killed. He was aged 50 years and as his body was never recovered and identified afterwards, he has no known grave.
Cunard Records, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.