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Ethel Caterham, the world's oldest living person, has celebrated her 117th birthday surrounded by family and friends in Surrey, marking another extraordinary milestone in a life spanning more than a century.
Caterham, who lives at Hallmark Lakeview Care Home in Lightwater, reached the remarkable age on Friday. She became the world's oldest living person in April 2025 following the death of Brazilian nun Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas at the age of 116.
Her lifetime has covered some of the most significant events of modern history. Caterham was born three years before the sinking of the Titanic and eight years before the Russian Revolution. She has also lived through two world wars, witnessed enormous technological change and survived the Covid 19 pandemic at an age when very few people were expected to recover.
According to Guinness World Records, Caterham contracted Covid 19 in 2020 when she was 110, making her one of the oldest known people to survive the disease.
Born in Shipton Bellinger in Hampshire, Caterham was the second youngest of eight children and grew up in Tidworth, Wiltshire. Her early adulthood eventually took her far beyond Britain, including a journey to India in 1927 when she was a teenager.
During her time there, she worked as an au pair for a military family. The experience became one of many chapters in a long life that would take her across continents and generations.
Caterham later met her husband, Norman, a lieutenant colonel in the British Army, at a dinner party in Britain in 1931. The couple subsequently lived in Hong Kong, where Caterham established a nursery school.
Her remarkable longevity has been accompanied by an active approach to life. She was still driving at the age of 97, an achievement that reflects the independence she maintained well into old age.
In September last year, Caterham received a visit from King Charles, shortly after celebrating her 116th birthday. During their conversation, she recalled seeing him during his 1969 investiture as the Prince of Wales, when he was only 21.
With characteristic humour, she told the King that "all the girls" had been in love with him and wanted to marry him.
Caterham now holds the distinction of being the oldest living person, but the record for the longest verified human lifespan remains with Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment. She died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days, according to Guinness World Records.
As Caterham celebrates another year, her life remains a remarkable journey through generations of social, political and technological transformation.
