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!

my father's birthplace

Dear Professor Spiegelhalter, . I would like to offer you a remarkable experience from my life which I tend to view more as an example of what Carl Jung would have regarded as synchronicity rather than something which can be explained away simply on scientific grounds. Please bear with me while I describe the background to all this. I was born in Britain in 1935. My father was a veterinary surgeon but during the war he worked as a radar technician on the South Coast of England. We lost our home in a German bombing raid in 1942. I lived as an evacuee in Somerset until the end of the war, when I went with my family to live in New Zealand (my father was released from radar work late in 1944 and he had taken a veterinary job in New Zealand and travelled there before the rest of us). So until we were brought back together as a family in New Zealand early in 1946 there was nowhere any of us related to as a permanent home. I saw little of my father during the war and in my teenage years in New Zealand a great rift developed between us. He succumbed to alcoholism and after violent scenes between us I turned my back on him.

A hitchhiking coincidence

My sister was living in Perth, W.A. and wanted her sewing machine from our parents home in the Cotswolds. She heard of a girl in London who would be> returning to W.A. shortly and suggested she should have a weekend in the> Cotswolds and in exchange bring out the sewing machine: there was no response. However, a few weeks later my parents set off in the car for a day at the seaside and on the way stopped to pick up two hitchhiking girls - one of whom was the girl who had been asked to bring out the sewing machine> (but who had been short of time and had not responded). My parents arranged to meet the girls at the end of the day, took them home for a meal, a night's rest and a trip round the Cotswold - and then set them on their way next day, together with sewing machine, to their ship for the return to W.A. This occurred over 45 years ago when mobiles were unheard of! Cim T

Arriving in sync

My future wife and I were moving from rented accomodation in Clapham, south London, to the same in Nottingham. The idea was to get all our meagre possessions in an old Renault. We did, but unfortunately there wasn't then room for the future wife. She went back in the house to get her handbag, etc before going to get the tube and a train, without knowing what the train times were. I set off to drive across the river and up through a busy London on a Saturday early afternoon and then negotiate the M1 up to junction 25 and into the centre of Nottingham. Some 3-odd hours later, my wife was just opening the gate to the new front garden as I pulled up outside.

Call Arthur Koestler

Back in the '80s I ran a research foundation set up by Arthur Koestler and Brian Inglis to look at areas in science which lie beyond the bounds of orthodoxy. Koestler had already written two books on the subject of coincidence: "The Roots of Coincidence" and "The Challenge of Chance". Brian Inglis and I went on to collaborate on a book on intuition: "The Unknown Guest". I gathered the case studies -- rather as you're doing we developed a scheme for classifying them. After Koestler's death I decided I'd had enough of bashing my head against the brick wall of scientific orthodoxy so turned to other interests: human rights, biodiversity, the environment and health -- and most recently food and farming. The complete set of Koestler's books sat on my bookshelves but I didn't take any down to read. Until that is a week or so ago. I was running a conference here in Oxford on farming (The Oxford Real Farming Conference) and had managed to recruit a young post grad to help organise it.

My chance meeting!

Hi david, my boyfriend read the article in the Daily Mail and asked me to respond. About 2 years ago i was working at the NEC at a show as the line of work i do is promotions, the show was a 4 day event but i was only to work the first 2 days and the go onto the IDH show in London however events occured and i ended up doing the full 4 days. On the evening of the last day i caught my train from Birmingham to London ready to work on the show the following day. All the way down i was on my phone moaning about the length of time i would be away and probably too the annoyance of the passengers on the train. When we pulled into the station i suddenly saw a young man sat in the seats in front of me only as a side profile and thought ooh he looks cute i wish i'd sat next to him. As he stood up and turned round i thought wow hes really nice and caught myself smilingat him too which he smiled back. As we got off the train we both walked side by side both not saying anything too each other but all the while i was thinking go on say something.

Family

My wife Sue, when married to her first husband inherited a stepson named Jason born on 11th Dec 1969. When she married me she inherited a step son named Jason born on 11 Dec 1969. My wife's first husband had a first wife called Sue who, when she divorced, remarried to a man called Alan. My wife Sue is now married to a me and my name is Alan.

Co-incidence at the Doctor's Surgery

I had booked an appointment to see female doctor at 4.50 pm. At the correct time, a male voice called my name to come to his room. Puzzled that it was not a female voice, I went to his room, only to find a patient already in there. I spoke to Reception, to find out what was going on. It transpired that another patient with exactly my name had booked an appointment at 4.50 pm that day!

Historical family connection.

I was born and brought up in Croydon, South London. I have lived in various parts of the country, Devon, Berkshire, Oxfordshire.Family history research shows that I now live, and worship in the church, where my g. g, g, g grandfather married in 1784 in Syston Leicestershire.

Room with a View

My name is Derek F and I worked in London for British Oxygen organising and attending various exhibitions for the Welding Division overseas. On this occasion I was staying at the Athenee Palace hotel in Bucharest. On arrival I was allotted a room first floor front overlooking the street which, in the very early morning, was busy and noisy. I therefore asked our local representative to arrange for a room change. Whilst waiting at reception on arriving back at the hotel that evening I noticed from the visitor's book that Derek F was now in a room on the third floor rear and was pleased that our representative had acted so quickly. I asked for the key to that room but it was not in its place. I went to the third floor and asked a chambermaid to open the door. There was an unopened case belonging to Derek F from London but, alas, not mine. I never did meet my namesake.

Mr Peter Alfred B

The number 17. My name has 17 letters. I was born on 7.12.34 = 17. 1934 = 17. My parents both died on the 17th day of the month. One year I was involved with a serious road accident caused by a taxi driver on 17th June. The following year on the 17th June I was assaulted at a petrol station by a taxi driver who arrived at a petrol pump after me and insisted he was first. Two years later driving to work I was accosted by a person who had tailgated me in a built up area and took exception to me showing my brake lights. The date ? - 17th June !

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