World's oldest person celebrates turning 117 in Lightwater

55 minutes ago Nathan Bevan South East BBC Ethel Caterham received a card from King Charles on her 115th birthday in 2024. The world's oldest living person celebrates turning 117 years old in Surrey on Friday with her family and friends. Born three years before the Titanic disaster and eight years before the Russian Revolution, Caterham has also lived through two world wars. She is one of the oldest people to survive Covid-19, after contracting it in 2020 at the age of 110, according to Guinness World Records. Originally from Shipton Bellinger in Hampshire, the second youngest of eight children, Caterham was raised in Tidworth, Wiltshire. As a teenager, she travelled to India in 1927 and worked as an au pair for a military family. She met her husband Norman, a lieutenant colonel in the British Army, at a dinner party in 1931 and later lived in Hong Kong, where she set up a nursery school. They raised two daughters, both of whom died before her. Norman also died in 1976, and one of her sisters, Gladys, lived until 104. Caterham, who was still driving when she turned 97, was visited by King Charles last September, just after her 116th birthday. During their meeting, she recalled his 1969 investiture as the Prince of Wales, saying, 'All the girls were in love with you and wanted to marry you.' However, Jeanne Calment, a French woman, remains the oldest person ever, having lived to 122 years and 164 days, Guinness World Records states.