{"id":361474,"date":"2025-08-21T07:15:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T07:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/361474\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T07:15:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T07:15:15","slug":"ethel-caterham-worlds-oldest-living-person-marks-116th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/361474\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethel Caterham, world’s oldest living person, marks 116th birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world’s oldest living person is celebrating turning 116.<\/p>\n

Ethel Caterham, who lives in a care home in Lightwater, Surrey, became the oldest living person in April following the death of Brazilian nun Sister Inah Canbarro Lucas<\/a> aged 116.<\/p>\n

Born on 21 August 1909, she is the last surviving subject of Edward VII.<\/p>\n

His great-great-grandson Charles III sent Mrs Caterham a card<\/a> to mark her 115th birthday in 2024.<\/p>\n

Mrs Caterham was born three years before the Titanic disaster, eight years before the Russian Revolution and lived through two world wars.<\/p>\n

Born in Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire, the second youngest of eight children, she was raised in Tidworth in Wiltshire.<\/p>\n

As a teenager she worked as an au pair in India, and later lived in Hong Kong and Gibraltar with her husband Norman, a lieutenant colonel in the army.<\/p>\n

A statement released by her care home said: “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.<\/p>\n

“Ethel will spend the day quietly with her family so that she can enjoy it at her own pace. Thank you again for your kind wishes on this special day.”<\/p>\n

The oldest person who ever lived, whose age could be verified, was Frenchwoman Jean Louise Calment<\/a>, who died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world’s oldest living person is celebrating turning 116. Ethel Caterham, who lives in a care home in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-361474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115065528369747803","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}