World’s Oldest Person Turns 117

Ethel Caterham, the world's oldest living person, has celebrated her 117th birthday in Surrey, marking another extraordinary milestone in a life spanning more than a century.

Caterham assumed the title in April 2025 following the death of Brazilian nun Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas at the age of 116.

Born three years before the sinking of the Titanic and eight years before the Russian Revolution, Caterham has witnessed some of the most significant events of the modern era, including two world wars.

She is also among the oldest people known to have survived COVID-19, contracting the virus in 2020 when she was 110.

Caterham is believed to be the last surviving person to have been born during the reign of King Edward VII. As a teenager, she travelled to India in 1927, where she worked as an au pair for a military family.

She met her future husband, Norman Caterham, a lieutenant colonel in the British Army, at a dinner party in Britain in 1931. The couple later lived in Hong Kong, where Ethel established a nursery school.

They went on to raise two daughters, both of whom died before their mother. Norman died in 1976.

Longevity also ran in Ethel's family. Her sister Gladys lived to the age of 104.

Caterham remained remarkably independent well into old age and was still driving when she turned 97.

In September last year, shortly after her 116th birthday, she received a visit from King Charles, adding another remarkable chapter to a life that has spanned 117 years of history.