The last of the Edwardians has just written her name in the record books.
On May 1 2025, Ethel Caterham was officially recognised as the oldest living person in the world.
Mrs Caterham, from Surrey, claimed the record at the age of 115 and she had a very Edwardian answer when asked about the secret to her long life.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph from her care home in Lightwater, Mrs Caterham said she thought she’d lived so long because ”I do what I like’.
The record became hers after the death of Inah Canabarro Lucas, a nun from Brazil who died on April 30 2025 at the age of 116.
She’s travelled widely and has spoken before about her attitude to life and how much she has tried to enjoy everything she’s done.
Ethel Caterham was born on August 21 1909 and is the last person born in the reign of King Edward VII to still be alive.
She was eight months old when the king died and George V took the throne on May 6 1910. Over a century later, the newest Monarch of her long life, Charles III, was crowned on May 6 2023.
Mrs Caterham has now lived through the reigns of six monarchs and has been alive for the whole duration of the House of Windsor which was created in 1917.
