Puzzling pictures and an Englishman's 'life-changing' journey to P.E.I.

Paul Harbord has flown across the Atlantic, driven through the Maritimes and finally reached Prince Edward Island so he can walk in the footsteps of his grandfather.

The Englishman from Essex, U.K., made the journey with his wife and brought a collection of P.E.I. photos that his grandfather captured more than 70 years ago.

And this week he's dedicated to retracing his grandfather's path.

"It sort of became clear that the only real way to identify with these photos is to actually come and see the place itself and see where these photos were taken," he said.

"It's been fantastic, actually. It's a really friendly place. It's clearly very historic and actually a lot of it doesn't seem to have changed a great deal that we've seen from some of the photos."

Harbord's grandfather, Ronald W. L. Harbord, visited the province during the Second World War and served in the Royal Canadian Navy aboard HMCS Kamloops. Roland spent about four months on the Island while the ship was in Charlottetown to be refitted.

During his stint in a frigid, frosty P.E.I. winter, Ronald took pictures of Islanders and popular places throughout the capital and took the dozens of photos home with him.

It's been quite a journey.— Paul Harbord

The pictures remained in the family and last year Harbord researched Ronald's wartime past and reached out to Islanders on Facebook to see if they could help identify some of the people and places in the photos.

"Finding out little bits and pieces, it's like a big jigsaw puzzle piecing it all together. And then eventually, with the aid of the internet, I was able to actually find some of the locations," he said.

"It's been quite a journey."

Now, after having some success tracking down a few of those locations, Harbord made the trek to P.E.I. to explore the places his grandfather once was.

Harbord identified locations like the cannons at Victoria Park, the doors of the Bank of Nova Scotia, the cenotaph, St. Dunstan's Basilica and the houses across the street, and several other prominent spots.

He's visited these locations with his wife and tried to retake the photos as close as he could to the originals.

"It's amazing, it's been 75 years since my granddad was here and to repeat that process is a life-changing moment, really," he said.

"It makes you feel that the world is accessible … when I was younger we didn't really hear the stories of his time here, or on-board the ship, so it just brings me just that much closer to him."

Still looking for help

Although he leaves P.E.I. soon, his research isn't over yet. He's still trying to identify many of the people in the photos and is asking for Islanders' help again in figuring out who some of these locals may be. 

"If we can do that then we can actually help share these photos with people that probably don't even know they exist," he said.

"I've got no concerns about sharing the photos with people, I think that they're a historical record. They should be shared, so that's really the aim, is for me to find out who these people are."

Anyone who wants to see more pictures, or to reach out to Harbord, can do so through Facebook.

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