As'ad Tannūs (Assed Alexander Thomas) was a Third Class passenger of the Titanic. He survived the sinking.
He was the son of Iskandar Tannūs (b. 1890) and Thamīn Khūrī (b. 1895) who had married in 1910. His father worked selling fruit and vegetables in their home village.
It was decided that the family would emigrate and his father Iskandar travelled ahead first (becoming known as Alexander), settling in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania where his married brother Bashīr (known in America as Charles) had previously emigrated to and who operated his own dry goods store there. Iskandar sent Bashīr back to Lebanon to fetch his wife and son As'ad and return with them to Wilkes-Barre.
As'ad, his mother and uncle Bashīr Tannūs and several others from their village of Hardīn left for Beirut where they would cross to Marseille and eventually arrive in Cherbourg. The party boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg on 10 April 1912 as third class passengers (Thamīn and her son As'ad on joint ticket number 2625 which cost £8, 10s, 4d) and they were headed to 33 Loomis Street in Wilkes-Barre.
On the night of the sinking Thamīn and her brother-in-law Bashīr brought baby As'ad to the upper decks but they got separated in the confusion, Thamīn ending up in a lifeboat with Bashīr still clutching baby As'ad. Bashīr gave As'ad to a woman (later identified as Edwina Troutt) and begged her to save the baby. Edwina entered a lifeboat with As'ad, saving his life.
It is not certain which lifeboat Thamīn departed in: some sources would suggest that she left in lifeboat 14 and baby As'ad with Edwina in lifeboat 16. Other sources have Thamīn departing in collapsible C and baby As'ad with Edwina in collapsible D.
Thamīn and her son survived the sinking and were reunited aboard Carpathia. Her brother-in-law Bashīr was lost.
Hospitalised in New York for the effects of shock and exposure Thamīn and her son eventually landed in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and were reunited with As'ad's father Iskandar. He settled with his family at 216 Stanton Street in Wilkes-Barre and he gained nine siblings: Sadie (b. 1914), Edward (b. 1916), Sarah (b. 1919), Helen (b. 1921), Joseph (b. 1923), Mae (b. 1925), Peter (b. 1927), Marjorie (b. 1930) and Jean (b. 1932).
As'ad (or Assed/Essid Alexander as he became known in the USA) died from pneumonia in White Haven sanatorium on 12 June 1931 aged just 20. He was buried in St Mary's Cemetery in Wilkes-Barre.
