Cambridge Coincidences Collection

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

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Well I Never!

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

Caravan Holidays.

In the late 1970's my wife and I took our touring caravan to a site in Anglesey for the Easter holiday. A little later that day a couple I knew (Tommy and Joan) who both worked at the same company as me in Stockport, arrived on the site. A little later still on the same day, the managing directors secretary, from where the 3 of us worked, arrived with her husband (Joan and David). A year or 2 later, my wife and I went to a caravan site near Woolacombe in Devon. Who should we spot as we pulled on to the site but Tommy and Joan. They were staying on the same site. Again, a year or 2 later still, we went to a caravan site near Plymouth overlooking Plymouth sound. There was a heavy mist from the sea so we had to be guided to a pitch by the warden. Our view round the site was very restricted. The following morning I went off the site to get a morning paper. On my way back who should I bump into, also going for her paper, but Joan. It turned out that her and her husband Tommy were a few pitches away from us.

Car registration coincedence

As neighbours who have become close friends, we make a habit of celebrating 'big' birthdays together. It was Kevin's 60th a few years back and we travelled with him and his wife Mo to London for the day. We had secretly booked a table at Manzi's Restaurant, an old haunt of his near Leicester Square. As we approached the restaurant we spotted a beautiful, black, shiny Mercedes sports car parked outside - the registration of which was K3V MO. He was convinced that we had arranged this in advance and still has the photo to mark the coincidence!

Indigo Coincidence

Hello, 3 people in a united kingdom household talking about an acquaintance who runs a company called Indigo Herbs, I then picked up the Guardian Quick crossword and the first clue that I saw was: '17 (down) Deep violet-blue colour (6)' (Guardian Quick Crossword 4.2.12) answer = Indigo. Yours Sincerely, Kevin Witt

Sandra M

In 2004, both my parents passed away, some months later I had taken my son to the cemetery and decided to show him the graves of his maternal great grandparents who were buried in the same cemetery as my mother and father. As we were standing by my grandparents' grave, my son noticed the date on which my grandfather had passed away which was 21 January which was my late father's birthday (he was still alive when my grandfather passed away) and then made the connection that my father had passed away on my husband's birthday. Which means that my grandfather had passed away on my father's birthday, and my father had passed away on my husband's birthday. As my son made this connection I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise very slightly and felt a cold shiver go down my back.

All for an apple

During the 1970's my husband was Headmaster of a boarding and day school in the SWMidlands. It happened that we were invited to dinner one October evening with the Head of a neighbouring school, Robert Muldooney*, and his wife and his wife Margaret; the two men knew each other slightly, but I had not met either of the couple. On the afternoon of the day we were to dine with them, I started to store apples in our cellar, in a discarded chest of drawers which had been used for apple-storing by a long-ago occupant of the house. The first drawer I opened was lined with newspaper from an old and yellowed copy of The Times. It was the Court page. An entry leapt to my eyes: " The engagement is announced between Robert, elder son of . . . and . . . Muldooney, and Margaret, younger daughter . . . " (* names changed). I took the piece of paper to dinner with me that night. "Oh, thank you" said our hostess, "I'm so glad to have that; I was in Australia when my mother put the announcement in the paper, and I never got a copy." "And all was for an apple. . ."

jeff

A friend and I were touring India for two months. During the last week we stopped for a beachside drink. On another table was a woman we had both travelled to Romania with in the same bus as part of a convoy aid trip 10 years before. She had moved to India and was living in a nearby town. She had just called in there for a drink too. and didnt usually go to that area! We stayed with her for a few days, what a get together|

Generational coincidence

My father rented a room in Raynes Park after the second world war. He was lodging with 2 war widows and was pleasantly surprised to find that they were 2nd World War widows, not first world war as he had anticipated.My Canadian mother, who was then in England and engaged to my father, was not so pleased! My parents married in April 1950 and they lived in Ealing.I was born in 1951. When I was 9 years old we moved to Croydon. I married and had 2 children. We continued to live in Croydon. After University and a further year in Bristol my daughter settled in Raynes Park,partly because there was a church nearby that she wanted to attend. She was unaware that my father had lived in the area. While my daughter was trying to find accomodation she discovered that a flat was for rent, to share. The flat belonged to a lady at her church.She became a tenant of the flat, sharing with two other young women. During a family ' get-together' my daughter was talking about her flat and showing photos that I had taken. When my dad saw the photos he said that that was where he had lived. There were several large blocks of flats on the site.

William Makepeace Thackeray

This is not a personal coincidence, except very indirectly as I found it in the course of researching my family history, and it may not even be a coincidence. In the 19th century there were two instances of persons with the name of William Makepeace Thackeray: one was the celebrated author of 'Vanity Fair' and other books, who lived from 1811 to 1863; the other was William Makepeace Thackeray, a 'Doctor of Physic' ( or physician) living near Chester, 1770 to 1849. They may have been related but so far I have not found out any kinship.

UNBELIEVABLE COUSIN'S TALE

My cousin Martin often travelled to New York to visit auction houses to buy stock for his antique business in London. Once there, he hailed a cab to take him to his hotel. The cabbie (Alan) gave Martin his card and (like one does) told him to contact him again on his next visit, which he did. Martin used Alan for every trip and they became friendly, resulting in Alan and his wife Sandra taking Martin out to dinner before the end of one of his stays. (Like one does) Martin told Alan to contact him should he ever be coming to London as he would like to reciprocate dinner with his wife Helene. A year later, the four got together in London for the reciprocal dinner after which they were driving around and the conversation progressed to questions of the various areas of the Capital, as Sandra (the cabbie's wife) had a cousin in Finchley. Helene also had a cousin in Finchley. These cousins also lived in the same road, and to cut an extremely long story short, it transpired that Sandra's cousin and Helene's cousin were one and the same people!

Linked to the same people

My husband was talking to his boss about how Northerners and Southerners aren't supposed to get on, etc, and mentioned that Bristolians don't much like the Welsh, as they think they take their jobs, etc. He mentioned that my cousin, a Bristol girl, had married a Welsh dentist and the couple lived in Devon. The boss said he knew a Bristol girl who had married a Welsh dentist in Devon. My husband thought he was pulling his leg. Turns out my cousin was very close friends with my husband's boss's sister-in-law!

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