English great-grandma becomes world’s oldest person at 115

A British woman, Ethel Caterham, became the world’s oldest person aged 115 on Thursday after the death of a Brazilian nun who had held the record, according to research groups.

Caterham was born in a village in Hampshire on 21 August 1909, the second youngest of eight children. She lives in a care home in Surrey, also in southern England, having outlived her husband and both her daughters.

Ethel Caterham becomes world’s oldest person

She is now the oldest person in the world according to the US-based Gerontological Research Group (GRG) and the LongeviQuest database, after the death of 116-year-old Inah Canabarro Lucas from Brazil.

The great-grandmother is the last living subject of King Edward VII, according to the GRG, and is also the oldest British person ever, according to the “Oldest in Britain” database.

Caterham celebrated her 115th birthday in August with a letter from King Charles III, who congratulated her on a “truly remarkable milestone”.

Secret to longevity?

Her secret to longevity? “Never arguing with anyone! I listen and I do what I like,” she said on her milestone birthday last year.

She has three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Caterham travelled to India when she was 18 to work as an au pair for a military family, making the three-week journey alone by ship.

Soon after she returned to the UK, she met her future husband Norman Caterham at a dinner party and they married in 1933.

The couple were stationed in Hong Kong and Gibraltar before returning to southern England. Ethel’s husband died in his 60s in 1976.

But Ethel Caterham had a long life to live still. She only stopped driving when she was just shy of 100, and played bridge well into her old age.

She even survived a bout of Covid aged 110 in 2020, according to The Telegraph.

The same year, she told the BBC that in her life, she had “taken everything in my stride, the highs and lows”.

“I’ve been all over the world, and I’ve ended up in this lovely home,” she added.

In 2022, Caterham revealed that for her, “family is the most important thing in life, to be able to leave memories with your children and grandchildren”.

She also told the Salisbury Journal it was key to “say yes to every opportunity”, “have a positive mental attitude and have everything in moderation”.

Briton John Tinniswood held the title of world’s oldest man for eight months in 2024 until his death in November aged 112.

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