In July 1940 D.J. Page was a young British soldier stationed in England. Page was delighted when his long-awaited wedding photographs arrived,but he found that they had been opened by mistake by another young serviceman in Troop A. The recent bridegroom was in Troop H.
Accompanying the pictures was a very apologetic letter from the man who had inadvertently opened the wedding pictures envelop. But his action was not surprising,as it turned out,due to the incredible similarities between the two men’s names and serial numbers. The name of the man who wrote the letter was Page;the other’s was Page. Page’s army serial number was 1509322;the other Page’s was 1509321. Neither man had previously known the other.
A few months after the war,D. J. Page was working as a driver with London Transport. One day he noticed that the tax deduction on his paycheck was far too high,and he went to his superintendent to inquire about the matter. There Page learned that his salary had been mixed up with that of another London Transport driver,one recently transferred to the same garage,whose name was Page. The very same man Page encountered earlier. There was yet another coincidence:Page’s license number was 29222;Page’s was 29223.
Another coincidence story came to light in 1942,when Author Butterworth was in the British army,posted at a camp near Norwich,on the grounds of Taversham Hall. Butterworth ordered by mail a secondhand book from a London firm,and when the volume arrived two weeks later,he stood in the window of his hut and opened the package.
While removing the wrapping,a picture postcard fell out of the book,placed there,presumably,as a marker by the previous owner. Picking up the card,Butterworth saw that it was postmarked August 4,1913,nearly three decades earlier.
Then he turned it over to look at the picture and was flabbergasted. It showed precisely what he was seeing out his window,a view of Taversham Hall.
During World War II,British army camps,as a security measure,were not identified by name,but rather by a mailing code. So the bookseller,as a friendly gesture to a serviceman,could not have intentionally inserted the card in the book,for he had no way of knowing to which camp he was sending the package.
