World's oldest person celebrates turning 117Born before the Titanic sank, Ethel Caterham has seen out two world wars and survived Covid at 110.8 hrs agoSurrey

For context, the world's oldest living person celebrates turning 117 years old in Surrey on Friday with her family and friends.

Key points

• After contracting it in 2020 at the age of 110, according to Guinness World Records, furthermore, she is one of the oldest individuals to survive Covid-19.
• While one of her sisters, Gladys, additionally became a centenarian, living until she was 104, norman additionally went on to die in 1976.
• Ethel, who was still driving when she turned 97, was visited by King Charles last September, just after her 116th birthday.
• Originally from Shipton Bellinger in Hampshire, the second youngest of eight children, Ethel was raised in Tidworth, Wiltshire.
• Follow BBC Surrey on Facebook, X, and Instagram and listen to BBC Radio Surrey on Sounds.

Ethel Caterham, who lives at Hallmark Lakeview Care Home in Lightwater, took on the mantle in April 2025 after the death of Brazilian nun Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas at the age of 116.

Born three years before the Titanic disaster and eight years before the Russian Revolution, Ethel has additionally lived through two world wars.

As a teenager she travelled to India in 1927 and began working as an au pair to a military family there, the last surviving subject of King Edward VII.

Ethel met her husband Norman, a lieutenant colonel in the British Army, at a dinner party in the UK in 1931 and the pair afterwards lived in Hong Kong, where she set up a nursery school. They then raised two daughters, both of whom died before her.

When he was 21, telling him: "All the girls were in love with you and wanted to marry you.", during their session, she recalled his 1969 investiture as the Prince of Wales.

Nevertheless, the title of the oldest person ever is still held by French woman Jeanne Calment. This person died in 1997 having lived to 122 years 164 days, states Guinness World Records.

Follow BBC Surrey on Facebook, X, and Instagram and listen to BBC Radio Surrey on Sounds. Send your story ideas to [email protected] or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250. British woman, 115, becomes world's oldest person.

For now, world' s oldest person celebrates turning 117Born before the Titanic sank, Ethel Caterham remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.