World’s oldest person celebrates ‘lovely’ 117th birthday after year she met King

Ethel Caterham Marks 117th Birthday in Surrey, Recalling a Year of Royal Encounters and Personal Milestones

Traveloasisspot.com – On a quiet Friday in Surrey, a woman who has outlived two world wars, three British prime ministers’ tenures, and nearly every member of her own generation gathered with family and friends to celebrate what may be the most extraordinary birthday in modern British history. Ethel Caterham, now 117, spent the day surrounded by loved ones at her residence in Lightwater, reflecting on twelve decades of life that span from the Edwardian era to the present day.

Caterham, who resides at Hallmark Lakeview Care Home, described the past twelve months as a period filled with unprecedented experiences. Among them: stroking a llama and, most notably, holding the hand of King Charles III during his personal visit to her room.

“Thank-you for all of the kind birthday wishes. Even at 117, I’ve had many firsts this year, from stroking a llama to holding hands with the King.”

“I’ve had a lovely day celebrating with my family and friends, and I look forward to seeing what next year brings.”

A Royal Handshake That Made Headlines

The encounter with the monarch took place in September of the previous year, shortly after Caterham had turned 116. Charles, then still Prince of Wales, entered her care-home room and introduced himself personally. As he spoke, he took her hand — a gesture that Caterham later recalled with evident warmth. The conversation turned to a moment from his own youth: his investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969, when he was just 21 years old. Caterham, who would have been roughly 60 at the time, offered a wry observation about the young prince’s effect on the female spectators.

“All the girls were in love with you and wanted to marry you.”

The exchange underscored a remarkable fact: Caterham is the last surviving subject of King Edward VII, who died in May 1910. She was born in the final year of his reign, meaning she has lived under every British sovereign since — Edward VII, George V, George VI, Elizabeth II, and now Charles III.

From Hampshire to India: A Life Spanning Empires

Ethel Caterham was born on August 21, 1909, in Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire — five years before Britain entered the First World War. She was the second youngest of eight children, a fact that would shape decades of family bonds stretching across continents.

In 1927, at the age of 18, she made the journey to British India, where she worked as an au pair for a military family. She remained in the subcontinent until she was 21, returning to Britain at the close of the 1920s. That homecoming proved consequential: in 1931, at a dinner party in the UK, she met Norman, a lieutenant colonel in the British Army. The two married and followed his postings through Salisbury, Gibraltar, and eventually Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, Caterham established a nursery school and raised two daughters. Both daughters predeceased her. Her husband Norman died in 1976. One of her sisters, Gladys, reached the age of 104 — a remarkable longevity in its own right, though still short of Ethel’s own record.

Centenarian Years: Bridge, the Wheel, and a Pandemic

Longevity, for Caterham, has never meant withdrawal. She continued to drive a motor vehicle until she was 97. In her years past the century mark, she took up contract bridge, a demanding card game requiring sharp memory and strategic calculation. In 2020, at the age of 110, she survived the global coronavirus pandemic — a feat that placed her among the oldest confirmed survivors of the disease anywhere in the world.

The Weight of a Record

Caterham’s position as the oldest living person on Earth dates to April 2025, when Brazilian nun Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas passed away at the age of 116. Since then, Caterham has held the title with the quiet dignity of someone who has long since stopped counting years as a milestone and begun treating them simply as days.

The all-time record for human longevity remains held by Jeanne Calment, a French woman who lived to 122 years and 164 days, according to Guinness World Records. Caterham, at 117, has not yet approached that mark, though each passing month narrows the gap in a statistical sense. Whether she will ultimately challenge Calment’s century-old benchmark remains, of course, an open question — one that the world watches with a mixture of fascination and tenderness.

For now, the focus in Lightwater is simpler: a woman who has seen empires dissolve, continents redrawn, and monarchs change, sitting with her family on a Surrey afternoon, looking forward to whatever next year brings.