World’s Oldest Person, Ethel Caterham, Turns 116

A new extraordinary milestone for Ethel Caterham, the world’s oldest person: the English great-grandmother has turned 116, receiving many well-wishes, CE Report quotes ANSA.

“Ethel and her family are very grateful for all the kind messages and interest shown to her on the occasion of her 116th birthday,” said the care home in Surrey where the supercentenarian resides.

She became the longevity record holder after the passing of Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas on April 30.

Caterham was born on August 21, 1909, in a village in Hampshire, southern England — before the outbreak of the Great War, when King Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria and great-grandfather of the late Queen Elizabeth II (and great-great-grandfather of the current monarch, King Charles III), still sat on the throne of what was then the British Empire.

The youngest of eight children, Ethel received an official letter from the monarch in May congratulating her on her "remarkable milestone" after being recognized as the oldest living person. At 18, she moved to colonial India, working as an au pair for a British army officer's family. After returning to Britain, she met her future husband Norman at a party. They married in 1933 and lived in Hong Kong and Gibraltar before settling back in England.

Widowed in 1976, nearly 50 years ago, Ethel stopped driving only at the age of 100 and even recovered from COVID-19 at nearly 111.

The secret to her long life? “Not arguing with anyone,” she once told a journalist.