UK's oldest ever person Ethel Caterham becomes world's oldest person at age 115
The oldest person in UK history has officially become the world’s oldest woman living and oldest person living.
Ethel Caterham, who lives in Surrey, England, has earned the titles at the age of 115 years and 252 days, as confirmed by LongeviQuest.
She is the youngest person to be named the oldest woman in the last 12 years.
Ethel takes the records following the death of Inah Canabarro Lucas (Brazil), who was also the world’s oldest living nun.
Born in Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire, on 21 August 1909, Ethel was the second youngest of eight children.
Her older sister, Gladys Babilas (d. 9 March 2002) also lived a very long life, surviving to the age of 104 years and 78 days.
Ethel on her 115th birthday
Ethel lived in India when she was 18, working as a nanny for a British family.
She’d wanted adventure and headed off on a three-week voyage by ship on her own in 1927.
She often talked about her time in the country fondly, speaking of how the family she worked for – along with their household staff – would embrace both British traditions and Indian ones like Tiffin and Tea.
Ethel met her future husband at a dinner party in 1931, Major Norman Caterham of the British Army.
They married at Salisbury Cathedral in 1933. It was a special venue for them as Norman had been a choirboy there.
He went on to rise through the ranks in the army, becoming a lieutenant colonel in the Royal Army Pay Corps.
Ethel in November 2024
They lived in Harnham, Salisbury, before Norman took on postings in Hong Kong and Gibraltar.
While they were in Hong Kong, Ethel returned to her first love – looking after children.
She set up a nursery that welcomed both local children and British children.
Ethel taught them English, played games with them and led them in arts and crafts sessions.
It was after they settled back in Surrey that Ethel and Norman welcomed two daughters of their own, Gem and Anne.
Ethel was sadly widowed in 1976. She inherited Norman’s classic Triumph Dolomite car and only gave up driving it when she was 97.
She also tragically outlived both of her children. Gem died in the early 2000s and Anne lost her life to cancer in February 2020 at the age of 82.
Ethel on Christmas Day 2024
Ethel has three granddaughters and five great-grandchildren.
She is in good health today and loves spending her days sitting in the sunshine in the garden of her care home - renamed “Ethel’s Garden” in her honour - while listening to the birds singing, or sitting back in her living room listening to classical music.
When asked to reveal the secret of her long live, she once told the Salisbury Journal: “Say yes to every opportunity because you never know what it will lead to. Have a positive mental attitude and have everything in moderation.”
It was only very recently, on 7 April, that she surpassed the age of Charlotte Hughes (1877-1993), who had been the oldest person in British history for the last 32 years.
Ethel is believed to be the last living person born in 1909.
She’s the last British person born before 1913 and the last living subject of King Edward VII, the eldest son of Queen Victoria. He reigned from 1901 to 1910.
Ethel is also one of the oldest people to survive COVID-19, after contracting it in 2020 at age 110.
Images courtesy of LongeviQuest