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.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

Well I Never!

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

The Apprentice

This happened to my late father about 40 years ago. Waiting at the carousel after a plane trip from the Isle of Man to Liverpool, a chap approached my father and asked whether he had a car and, if so, whether he could give him a lift to the city centre. Whilst chatting during the journey, the chap, now living in Devon, asked my father where he was from originally. When my father answered 'Stockport', the chap said that he had been an apprentice painter and decorator there in the mid '40s to a man named 'John C.' Who was the painter in question? None other than my maternal grandfather! When the passenger got home, he sent my parents an etching of Brixham Harbour as a thanks and with fond memories of his apprenticeship.

Correct Cinema Seats

My son and I went to the cinema and sat down without looking at the tickets. I then realised the tickets were numbered (Row/Seat numbers) and checked our tickets. To my surprise my son and I had sat down in the correct seats without having first checked the row/seat numbers. Probably not that much of a coincidence (depends on size of cinema), but still strange when it happens.

Roamntic coincidence

I recently married a widower. His late wife's first name is the same as mine (Barbara) and she and I have the same birthday (5th July)

The same car

It was 1960 and I was leafing through ‘’Exchange and Mart ‘’when I saw advertised a 1934 Singer-le-Mans for £65; about two months pay as a serving RAF Technician. As the car was advertised in Birmingham this was convenient as my family lived on the outskirts. In due course I purchased the said car from a married chap who was reluctantly selling due to an expanding family. Well time moves on; it is now 1990, and I had long left the RAF, obtained professional qualifications and pursued an engineering career in Building Services moving around the country with various employers. Now living in Lichfield, I joined the Birmingham Regional Hospital Board as a senior design engineer and Friday lunchtime was when you relaxed with your colleges over a pint and a chat. We were generally discussing cars, when Tony one of my drinking partners, said he use to own a Singer-le-Mans. The following week we both produced photos of the cars and you’ve guessed --- it was the same Singer, and he was the fellow who sold it to me 30 years ago.

meeting in London

I went to London with my cousin who was visiting from Canada (neither of us having been to London for several years) and were walking to the South Bank, where my cousin had heard about a restaurant for lunch. We weren't sure where it was, and I said to her "let's ask someone if they know it". I turned around and there was the son of one of my best friends (who was at the Royal Academy of Music) just there, so I said "Hi James, can you tell me where the Wagamama Restaurant is?" and he was able to direct us"

Birthdays and more

I was born on my parents' wedding anniversary, 17th July. When I met my boyfriend's father, now my father-in-law, I thought it was a coincidence his birhday was the same day. A couple of years later I was pregnant, due around the 28th July, but my waters broke early and they decided to induce me, and wondered why I was laughing at the thought; it was late on the 16th July and I knew policy was not to let labour continue more than 24 hours. My daughter was born in the afternoon of the 17th, My father-in-law was particularly happy as he had hoped that my husband would be born on his birthday, but he'd put in his appearance early, on the 12th.

Meeting a cousin at Wembley.

In 1958 I went on a coach from our school in Wolverhampton to watch the schoolboy international football match between England and Scotland. We parked in the coach park at Wembley - as the next coach parked alongside my friends said that someone was waving at me from that coach. I noticed a familiar face in the window, nearly facing me, it was my cousin from Swindon who was also, unknown to me , going to the game. I believe the crowd that day was nearly 90,000, the majority coming from schools all over England by coach. I would guess there could have been nearly 1,000 coaches in that coach park. I would love to know the odds of cousins, almost facing each other, being parked in a coach next to each and coming from Wolverhampton and Swindon.

Brazilians in Truro

My Brazilian fiance had travelled from Sao Paulo in Brazil to live in London to attend and sit a masters in law at the LSE, which she passed. I was moving out of the flat I rented in Islington and she was moving into the same flat and we became friends. During the Queen's golden jubilee In 2002, the country was given an extra bank holiday and we decided to travel to Porlock in Devon and stay overnight. While we were there, we decided to go further West into Cornwall to St.Ives. When it started to get dark at around 7pm we started to call in at hotels and bed & breakfasts but could not find anywhere to stay. We widened our search and one helpful hotel receptionist called around to a number of other hotels, but there was still nowhere. We started to drive around from town to town and there was still nowhere to stay. Eventually I spotted a sign to Truro and went there as we were getting hungry. There were several restaurants and we chose Pizza Hut. When we walked in we walked straight into some friends of hers from Sao Paulo in Brazil who she hadn't seen for years who had decided to stay with an English friend in Truro.

Close House, Giggleswick, North Yorkshire.

When I was working on my wife's maternal family tree, I discovered her great, great, great grandparents living at Close House in the latter half of the 18th century. I was surprised because, for years, I have had a postcard written by my great aunt to her aunt and uncle, addressed to the same Close House, and dated 1909. One evening, a few years ago, my wife and I were enjoying a meal with some friends who live near Giggleswick and I told them of this coincidence. They were surprised and the husband asked his wife, 'Doesn't Mr. D. live at Close House?' His wife said, 'Yes.' And , strangely, Mr and Mrs D. were sitting at the next table! At the time when my wife and I first met, we were both at colleges in London, my parents home was in Essex and my wife's parents lived in Walsall, Staffs. Bryan.

old friends

In 1995 we went as a family to work in Ferrol in the North of Spain on a construction contract and became friendly with a local Spanish doctor and his family. After 9 months we returned to the UK and over time lost contact with our Spanish friends. In 2003 we returned to Spain to work in Madrid, where unexpectedly I had to undergo a serious operation. After recovery from that we went as an act of thanksgiving to a remote Shrine in the North of Spain in the foothills of the Pyrenees ( mid-week out of season) and checked into the residence connected to the shrine. As we were waiting to complete our hotel registration who appeared at the reception desk but our Spanish friends. The reason that they had come to this location strangely was as an act of thanksgiving since the doctors wife had undergone a significant operation. During the few days we spent in the residence we were the only 2 families resident there. Some coincidence ?

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