LONDON: Ethel Caterham, a British woman recognised as the world’s oldest person, celebrated her 116th birthday on Thursday, just months after inheriting the title following the death of Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas.
Caterham was due to mark the occasion quietly with her family, taking the day “at her own pace”, the care home where she lives said.
The title of the oldest person ever is held by French woman Jeanne Calment, who lived to 122 years and 164 days before her death in 1997, according to Guinness World Records.
Caterham was born on August 21, 1909, in the village of Shipton Bellinger in southwestern England, five years before the start of World War I.
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 Canabarro in April.
“Ethel and her family are so grateful for all of the kind messages and interest shown to her as she celebrates her 116th birthday this year,” her care home in Surrey, south of London, said in a statement, adding that she would not be giving interviews.
“The king (Charles III) may be her one concession, understandably,” it added.
The great-grandmother is the last living subject of King Edward VII.
She celebrated her 115th birthday last year with a letter from Charles who congratulated her on a “truly remarkable milestone”.
Her secret to longevity? “Never arguing with anyone! I listen and I do what I like,” she has said.
She has three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, having outlived both her two daughters and her husband Norman who died in 1976.
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 Daily Telegraph newspaper.
The same year, she told the BBC that in her life, she had “taken everything in my stride, the highs and lows”.
Briton John Tinniswood held the title of world’s oldest man for eight months in 2024 until his death in November aged 112.
