Cathedral Surprise

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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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My name is Mark Rxx and back in the late 1990's and early 2000's my wife and I used to go away for a weekend break every September. In 2001 we decided to visit her sister and husband who then lived just outside of Norwich and so on Friday 14th September, set off on the lengthy journey from our home in Devon. This was my first visit to East Anglia and I knew of no other members from my side of the family living any further eastwards than Berkshire. Rxx is a fairly uncommon name anyway, there are not that many of us about. We had intended to go in to the city for some sight-seeing on the Sunday, thinking it would be not so busy then, but on the Saturday morning changed our minds and went in then instead. We hadn't especially planned on visiting the Cathedral but on seeing the directional signs in the city centre, thought yes - better take a look whilst we're here. Norwich Cathedral is a very beautiful and very big building, both outside and in and we ambled around inside for quite a while, my wife going off in one direction and me in another. To this day I wonder just why I chose to wander in to a small chapel, tucked away at the rear of the Cathedral. In this chapel, inside a glass cabinet, was a large, ornate, open book. This book contained the names of all the local people that had lost their lives serving in the Armed Forces in WWII. The pages of that book are turned, one at a time, once a day, every day of the year. On Saturday 15th September 2001, on my first ever visit to Norwich, the book was open at page 90, for surnames beginning with R. I knew - even before I found it - that it would be there. And it was. The name Rxx B, from the Parish of Hunstanton St Edmunds, killed whilst serving in the RAF. Please tell me what were the chances of all those circumstances combining to give me that experience that day.
Total votes: 168
Date submitted:Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:35:09 +0000Coincidence ID:5269