The world’s oldest person is celebrating her 117th birthday at her care home in Surrey after a year of ‘many firsts’, including meeting the King and holding his hand.
Ethel Caterham, who lives at Hallmark Lakeview Care Home in Lightwater, is marking the milestone birthday by spending time with her family and friends to honour the occasion.
Mrs Caterham was born on August 21, 1909, in Shipton Bellinger in Hampshire, before being raised in nearby Tidworth across the county border in Wiltshire.
She was the second youngest of eight children, and one of her sisters, Gladys Babilas, also reached a century, having been born in 1897 and living to the age of 104.
When Mrs Caterham was born, it would be another nine years before women in the UK were given the vote.
Her long life has taken in two world wars, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the first Moon landings, and the fall of the Berlin Wall – while she only stopped driving at the age of 97 and survived Covid-19 in 2020.
She has also lived through six monarchs and 28 prime ministers.
In a statement, she said: ‘Thank you for all of the kind birthday wishes. Even at 117, I’ve had many firsts this year, from stroking a llama to holding hands with the King.
King Charles III meeting Ethel Caterham, at Hallmark Lakeview Care Home in Lightwater, Surrey in September last year, just after her 116th birthday
During the meeting with Charles, Mrs Caterham recollected his 1969 investiture as the Prince of Wales when he was 21, adding: ‘All the girls were in love with you and wanted to marry you’
Mrs Caterham (pictured in 2024) became the oldest living person in April 2025 after the death of Brazilian nun Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas at 116
‘I’ve had a lovely day celebrating with my family and friends, and I look forward to seeing what next year brings.’
Mrs Caterham was visited by Charles, who held her hand as he introduced himself, in September last year, just after her 116th birthday.
She became the oldest living person in April 2025 after the death of Brazilian nun Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas at 116.
During the meeting with Charles, she recollected his 1969 investiture as the Prince of Wales when he was 21, adding: ‘All the girls were in love with you and wanted to marry you.’
Mrs Caterham is the last surviving subject of Edward VII, who died in 1910, before George V then took the throne, followed by Edward VIII, George VI, Elizabeth II and most recently Charles III.She has also lived through 28 prime ministers in Herbert Henry Asquith, David Lloyd George, Andrew Bonar Law, Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald, Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham.
While, celebrating her 115th birthday in August 2024, she said her longevity was down to ‘never arguing with anyone, I listen and I do what I like’.
Speaking to BBC Radio Surrey in 2020, the year she survived Covid, Mrs Caterham revealed her secrets to living a long and happy life: ‘I’ve 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, where everyone is falling over themselves for me, giving me everything I want.’
Two years later she explained her priorities, saying: ‘Family is the most important thing in life, to be able to leave memories with your children and grandchildren.
‘Possessions don’t matter a bit in the end – all you need is someone to look after you.’
Mrs Caterham is believed to be the fourth Brit to hold world’s oldest title, with Anna Eliza Williams the last person from the UK to hold the title, aged 114 years old when she died in 1987.
Alice Stevenson, aged 112 before her death in 1973, and 111-year-old Ada Roe who died in 1970 are the other two Brits to hold the title.
Mrs Caterham was 18 when she travelled alone by ship for three weeks to take up a job as an au pair to a military family in India.
She returned three years later in 1931 to Britain, where she met her future husband Norman Caterham at a dinner party and they wed at Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire in 1933.
He became a lieutenant colonel in the Royal Army Pay Corps and the couple originally lived in Harnham, near Salisbury, before being stationed in Hong Kong and Gibraltar.
During her time in Hong Kong, Mrs Caterham set up a nursery where she taught English, crafts and games
They later began their family when living in Gibraltar, before coming back to the UK to raise their two daughters.
They later moved to Surrey where Mrs Caterham has lived for more than 50 years.
Her husband died in 1976 and their two daughters Gem and Anne have also passed away.
King Edward VII, pictured on the day of his 1902 coronation alongside his consort Queen Alexandra, was still alive and on the throne when Mrs Caterham was born in 1909
Momentous events during Mrs Caterham’s long life included the First World War which ended in 1918 – pictured here are Paris peace talks including British politicians such as David Lloyd George
Women had not yet been given the right to vote when Mrs Caterham was born in 1909 – seen here is ‘Votes For Women’ campaigner Christabel Pankhurst in Trafalgar Square in 1908
Sir Winston Churchill is pictured in a Jeep outside the Reichstag in German capital Berlin in July 16 1945 at the end of the Second World War
Mrs Caterham was 44 when Queen Elizabeth II, pictured at Buckingham Palace with husband Prince Philip, had her coronation in June 1953
King Charles III became the sixth UK monarch of Mrs Caterham’s lifetime – he is seen here attending his coronation in May last year alongside his wife Camilla
Charlotte Hughes previously held the title for the longest-living person ever documented in the UK at 115 years and 228 days before her death in Redcar, North Yorkshire, in March 1993.
The only other Briton to turn 115 is thought to have been Annie Jennings, who reached 15 years and eight days before passing away in Wingerworth, Derbyshire, in November 1999.
The title of the oldest person ever is held by French woman Jeanne Calment, who lived to 122 years 164 days, according to Guinness World Records.
The world’s oldest people: From French woman who continued smoking until she was 117 to Japanese man who put his good health down to being in the sun
Jeanne Calment
The certified oldest person ever was French woman Jeanne Calment, who died aged 122 and 164 days in 1997.
Her unparalleled longevity has been the subject of numerous studies, both before and after her death.
Jeanne enjoyed good health for the majority of her life and even took up fencing as a hobby at the age of 85.
The world’s oldest man ever was Jiroemon Kimura, from Japan, who died aged 116 years, 54 days in 2013
Ms Calment also claimed to have met the artist Vincent van Gogh, to whom she sold painting canvasses in her father’s shop as a teenager.
‘He was ugly as sin, had a vile temper and smelled of booze,’ she said.
She continued smoking until she was 117 and used to rub olive oil into her skin.
Jiroemon Kimura
Japanese man Jiroemon Kimura, officially the oldest man to have ever lived, died aged 116 in 2013.
On his 115th birthday, Mr Kimura attributed his longevity to getting out in the sunlight.
‘I am always looking up towards the sky. That is how I am,’ he said.
Kimura ate a three-meal-a-day diet of rice, pumpkins and sweet potatoes.
The world’s oldest man ever was Jiroemon Kimura, from Japan, who died aged 116 years, 54 days in 2013
He reportedly did not smoke and said he only ate until he felt 80 per cent full.
According to one town official his motto in life was ‘to eat light and live long’.
When he was born back in 1897, Japan was coming to the end of its feudal period which saw the final days of the Samurai warrior class and the birth of a modern imperialist state.
When Japan entered WWI on the side of the British in 1915 he was already 18 years old, and when it allied itself with Germany in 1940 at the start of WWII he was already pushing on 43.
When the U.S. dropped the bomb on Hiroshima he was 48 but he resumed work as a postman at the end of the war and went on to live for another 68 years.
Kane Tanaka
When Japanese woman Kane Tanaka died aged 119 in 2022, she was the world’s oldest person.
She was born January 2, 1903, in the southwestern Fukuoka region of Japan in the same year the Wright brothers flew for the first time and Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.
When Japanese woman Kane Tanaka died aged 119 in 2022, she was the world’s oldest person
In her younger years, Ms Tanaka ran various businesses including a noodle shop and a rice cake store.
A century ago, she married Hideo Tanaka in 1922, giving birth to four children and adopting a fifth.
She had planned to use a wheelchair to take part in the torch relay for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but the pandemic prevented her from doing so.
On her 119th birthday on January 2, 2022, Ms Tanaka’s family members said she hoped to live to 120.
In her younger years, Ms Tanaka ran various businesses including a noodle shop and a rice cake store
Sarah Knauss
American woman Sarah Knauss died on December 30, 1999, just two days short of the new Millennium.
The former seamstress, who loved chocolate, crisps, popcorn and cashew nuts, left a daughter aged 96 when she died.
American woman Sarah Knauss died on December 30, 1999, just two days short of the new Millennium. The former seamstress, who loved chocolate, crisps, popcorn and cashew nuts, left a daughter aged 96 when she died
Born on September 24, 1880, she died peacefully in her sleep in a nursing home in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Although she was frail in her later years, she continued to get up most mornings to have breakfast in the dining room of her care home and also visited the hairdresser once a week.
At her 119th birthday, Mrs Knauss’s great-great-great grandson, then aged three, was present.
