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!

PARALLEL LIVES EXAMPLE

I'm not going to use real names but otherwise this is all bona fide. When my son, Freddy Brown began secondary school, our village comprehensive also took in children from the neighbouring village in that year group - including another Freddy Brown. (real name is more unusual) They weren't born on the same day, but they did have the same birth month (April) and year, and they had the same middle initial - R. I also discovered that I shared the same Christian name as the other Freddy Brown's mother, so our married names were the same. This was a nightmare for me and my son because the other Freddy Brown was always getting into trouble and I was forever receiving letters about how my son had been suspended from this class or that for inappropriate behaviour!

Four coincidences

. The victorian shilling: While in class at primary school aged 10 or 11 I purchased from my classroom neighbour a late Victorian shilling I had not seen one before. The next day whilst crossing a grass island on the way to school I saw something glint in the sun,it was an early Victorian shilling.[My schoolfriend lived in the opposite direction]. Dog reunited: We have a friend who had moved to Wapping from Dulwich S.E. london 5 years previously.When she moved she gave her dog Harry to a friend of a friend.She used to meet up with them at Crystal Palace park sometimes.One evening my partner and I were having dinner at the friend's flat in a private complex,I asked if she still saw the dog,no, the new owners had moved to Hertfordshire and she had completely lost touch.She had not seen the dog for years. When we left our friend saw us to the the front door of the complex.On returning to her flat she turned a corner and met her dog with its owner. They were visiting friends who also lived in the complex and had come out for a stroll.

Hitch-hike from Farnborough - 1953

In 1953 a friend, Keith A, and I decided to hitch-hike down to The Farnborough Airshow, at the height of its popularity, In those days there were no motorways - We left Altrincham, Cheshire in early morning and after some 8 or 9 lifts we arrived (via A6 and A5 roads) on the outskirts of London. Catching a tube from Cockfosters we decided to stay the night in the Earls Court area and train down to Farnborough the following morning. We watched, with thousands of others, a superb show and afterwards with no real knowledge of how we were going to get home went to the car exit and went along the queue of cars asking for a lift towards Oxford. Finally we found a car, the driver of which was willing to put us onto the Oxford Road. We arrived in a small village called Bracknell – a vastly different town now – about 6pm and went into a small confectionery shop (no supermarkets in those days) and stocked up with buns and biscuits for the journey home. Walking round the corner, we spotted a car filling up with petrol and asked the driver if he would give us a lift towards Oxford.

Mountain sisters

Back in the spring of 1972 I was trekking up to Everest base camp in Nepal and came across a young English couple coming back down the track. I was on my own so enjoyed a few minutes conversation in my native language before continuing our separate ways. In October of that year I was back in the UK to start a post-graduate teaching course at Bangor University in North Wales. There I met and began dating a girl who later told me that her sister had also been trekking in Nepal earlier in the year. This seemed too weird to contemplate but when we all met up at her parents it was confirmed that I had indeed met her sister in the depths of the HImalaya in the spring......

Mrs Shirley S

Location coincidence. In early 1970s I was a language student in Stuttgart and befriended a middle-aged German couple who said they had spent many happy holidays at a friend's house in Bristol; a city which was unfamiliar to me. 18 years later, after marrying and living in Birmingham and Gloucester, my family and I moved to Bristol and bought the house we are living in to this day. When I sent change of address details to Germany, my German friends told me that our house was only a few doors up from the one they used to stay in all those years ago - same street. Incredible!

chance encounter

about 20 years ago I was staying in the south of France wiht my then boyfriend. we were staying with a friend called R who had moved out there, bought a wreck of a house and was doing it up. R had been there a couple of years and made some friends including some other English people who had moved to the area. it was a very rural place, quite hard to find. One night we were sitting around, drinking beer and chatting and my boyfriend told us a story about a girl he had worked wiht in London some 20 or so years earlier. I had never heard him mention her before. He had lots of colourful stories about her and we talked about her for some time. The follwoing day, R was at work and the boyfriend and I were sitting in the sun reading when a car came up the track. An English couple got out and asked for R. We explained that he was at work and asked if they wanted to stop for a drink as it was very hot. They did and we chatted. After about 10 minutes the woman and my boyfriend recognised each other. it was the woman he had been talking about the previous evening.

Coincidence or magic?

I had been wearing a favourite pair of ear rings all day. Driving home along a paved road I decided to take off the ear rings as they were hurting. I put the two ear rings on a small shelf in front of the odometer on the dashboard. As I drove the vibration caused one ear ring to disappear down the gap between shelf and glass. I tried many ways to retrieve the ear ring to no avail. The garage told me it would be very expensive to remove all the facia to get to the ear ring. Four years after this incident we were to sell the car. Finally I accepted the fact I was to lose my ear ring. The day before the car was due to go to be sold on I was driving the car along the same road and to my amazement the ear ring fell out from behind the facia by the accelerator. The ear rings are now back together. My husband tells me this is not a coincidence.

graveyard coincidence

A new friend from London whom I had just met in mainland Europe whilst on holiday from Scotland invited me to London and whilst passing her local graveyard in North London she pointed out her favourite tombstone. As it happened it turned out to be the grave of the great uncle of my business partner in Glasgow !

Mr. J.A.G

Not sure whether this counts but While on holiday in the mid eighties on a camp site in Macon, France an english lady and her family walked passed our tent, talking and obviously very distressed, concerned both my wife and I approached her to give help and comfort. It appeared they had collided with another car just down the road and although no one was hurt had sustained some dammage to their vehicle. When approached they confided that they were discussing whether it was safe to drive home the next day to catch the ferry. Having some knowledge of cars I volunteered to look at it to advise them in my opinion whether it was or not safe for the journey home. I looked at the car and the door was dammaged but reassured them it was quite safe. Three months later while sitting in an assembly with my class and half listenning to the Deputy Head talking about a modern day 'Good Samaritan' and re-counting the unfortunate tale of some freinds of his who had had a car accident whilst on a camping holiday in the middle of France, my ears pricked up. After the assembly I asked the Deputy Head about his friends and sure enough it had been me! What are the chances of that?

Three generation French coincidence

About 30 years ago my husband and I had a holiday in the south of France with our two children and my parents. Our children played with French children from across the street. Mum and Dad had to leave to drive home before we did. After their departure our daughter had an accident and we were helped by the parents of the two French children. They were also on holiday - from the north of France - and we became friends. At the same time, driving north my parents, who were unaware of this, had a minor accident near Arras. They went to a local garage and, as their car was being repaired, a French gentleman invited them to have a drink. In his house Dad saw a photo and recognised the children and named them to his astonished host. They were the children we had met and the gentleman was their grandfather. We knew nothing of this until we returned home (no mobile phones). We were able to re-make contact via grandfather and the two families have been firm friends since then.

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