strange chars in xterm

[michael <cs@networkingnewsletter.org.uk>]

If I run
 xterm -e ssh xyz@hpc
or
 gnome-terminal -x ssh mccssmb2@hpc
from my Debian box "rat", then I get some strange chars in the manual
pages on the 'hpc' machine, eg for `man bash` the pipe char "|" comes
out as an "a" with a hat (^) above it (see attached screenshot) but I
can't see why this is happening.

If I, from a gnome-terminal just run
  ssh mccssmb2@hpc
then all is fine. And if I login to hpc from any other box, or it seems
login to any other box from "rat" then the chars appear as normal, as
far as I can see from a quick comparison.

I've no .Xresource nor .Xdefault in my home directory on "rat"

Here's the actual process list for how `man bash` is handled on
"hpc" (which is, err, interesting):

        0 S mccssmb2 22223 22137  0  76   0 -   781 wait   11:54 pts/26
        00:00:00 man bash
        
        0 S mccssmb2 22226 22223  0  76   0 -   807 wait   11:54 pts/26
        00:00:00 sh -c (cd /usr/share/man && (echo ".pl
        1100i"; /usr/bin/gunzip -c '/usr/share/man/man1/bash.1.gz'; echo
        ".\\\""; echo ".pl \n(nlu+10") | /usr/bin/gtbl | nroff --legacy
        ISO-8859-1 -man -rLL=77n -rLT=77n 2>/dev/null | /usr/bin/less
        -iRs)
        
        1 S mccssmb2 22227 22226  0  75   0 -   807 wait   11:54 pts/26
        00:00:00 sh -c (cd /usr/share/man && (echo ".pl
        1100i"; /usr/bin/gunzip -c '/usr/share/man/man1/bash.1.gz'; echo
        ".\\\""; echo ".pl \n(nlu+10") | /usr/bin/gtbl | nroff --legacy
        ISO-8859-1 -man -rLL=77n -rLT=77n 2>/dev/null | /usr/bin/less
        -iRs)
        
        0 S mccssmb2 22232 22227  0  76   0 -    88 read_c 11:54 pts/26
        00:00:00 /usr/bin/less -iRs


Any clues anybody?

Thanks, Michael