A PAIR of intrepid travellers are retracing a journey made 100 years ago.

Grandparents Liz and Tony Barron, 71, boarded the 15.40 train from Barry for their journey to Shangai at the same time and on the same date as Liz’s great grandfather William Arthur Leslie Pardoe – known as Leslie – did 100 years ago in 1913.

Liz, 63, of Totton, Hampshire, said re-creating the journey was something she had always wanted to do.

“I will be fulfilling a long held ambition to follow in his footsteps and the fact that we will go 100 years to the minute – trains being on time permitting – makes this trip altogether more exciting.

“I will keep a diary alongside grandpa’s to compare how things have, or have not changed in 100 years.”

Grandpa, William Arthur Lesley Pardoe, set off from Barry on the 15.40 train to Cardiff and then London where he stayed the night and had supper at The Clarence on April 20, 1913.

The newspaper recorded the departure: ‘Presentation to Barry Man on his departure for Shanghai where he has obtained a lucrative appointment as surveyor, Mr Leslie Pardoe, Barry, son of Mr JC Pardoe, surveyor to the Barry District Council, was, on Saturday, made the recipient of a travelling overcoat, book and compass set, the gifts of members of the Barry Branch of the Local Government Officers Association. The ceremony took place in the committee room of the Barry District Council and the presentation was made by Mr T.B.

Tordoff, the solicitor and clerk.’ Liz’s grandpa then left London on the boat train from Dover to Ostend, taking a sleeper train from Ostend to Brussels and on to Cologne, Berlin, Warsaw and Moscow.

He arrived in Moscow on April 23 and took the Trans- Siberian train to Harbin.

Late that evening the train was derailed by terrorists who had removed the bolts from the rails causing the train carriages to come off the rails and be buried 8 ft.

in the sand.

The next day the train carried on early in the morning to Tula and on April 29 it arrived in Irkutsk and travelled along the shores of Lake Baikal.

He arrived in Harbin – the first stop in China on May 2 – changed trains and travelled on to Chang Chun and then on to Dalien.

Pardoe arrived in Dalien on May 3, where he took a ship the SS Siakio Maru to Shanghai where there was a car waiting to take them to the office of the Shanghai Municipal Council, to meet the boss Mr Harpur and then take them to their digs at No 1 Yuan Ming Yuan Road where they stayed with Mrs Craig.

They went all around the town and to the Shanghai Club where they were guests for two weeks as visitors with “all privileges.

Went to the races”.

The Municipal Journal announced on May 15 that Pardoe had been appointed surveying assistant and also announced that RL Wall was appointed architectural assistant and that AF Gimson was appointed surveying assistant.

Wall and Gimson travelled with Pardoe from England.

In November 1916 The North China Herald announced the wedding of Pardoe to Margaret Marie Dunne.

Liz said: “The wedding was at St Joseph’s Catholic Church and the reception at the Palace Hotel.

“Grandpa was by now a volunteer fire fighter.

“The paper describes it as a very pretty wedding. It was described as a fireman’s wedding. Grandpa was the second assistant foreman of the Deluge Co. Shanghai Fire Brigade. Granny’s sister Teresa was bridesmaid.”

Liz added: “I can tell of my great grandfather as borough surveyor, and his contribution to Barry life, and of my Great Granny who was involved in starting an isolation hospital, in the Methodist Church in Barry, in the First World War and of her being made an OBE for her services.

“By way of an interesting aside – grandpa was in the Shanghai Volunteer Fire Service. I spent 25 years being involved in Hampshire and the UK Fire and Rescue Service and I was made an OBE for my services to the Fire and Rescue Service. I love this thread that connects us over the years. I’m excited about the trip – our friends say it’s different and our children said go for it!”