King Charles met with the world’s oldest person last week and listened as she gushed over how “all the girls were in love with you and wanted to marry you” in his youth.
At age 116, Ethel Caterham is the world’s oldest person. She assumed the title in April after the death of Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas, a Brazilian nun who died at the age of 116.
After bidding farewell to the US President on Thursday from the steps of Windsor Castle, King Charles motored over to Caterham’s care home in Surrey to pay her a visit.
Caterham would have received a birthday card from the late Queen Elizabeth II on her 100th birthday and again on her 105th, and every birthday after also receives a card.
Ethel Caterham was born on 21 August 1909, in the reign of Edward VII, and lived through the final year of his reign, and those of George V, George VI, Elizabeth II and now King Charles III.
She is the last British subject who was alive during the reign of Edward VII.
There are three other Britons, born in 1912, 1913, and 1914, respectively, that comprise the list of oldest living Britons. Together with Caterham, they consist of the four last subjects of King George V.
During the King’s visit she joked with him about how “all the girls were in love with you and wanted to marry you” as they watched his Investiture Ceremony as Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle. She shared how she remembered the moment the late Queen Elizabeth II placed the coronet on his head.
Her granddaughter, Kate Henderson, confirmed this to the King. “You were saying that the other day, weren’t you? You said ‘Prince Charles was so handsome. All the girls were in love with him.’ A true prince – and now the King.”
King Charles joked, “Yes, well, all that’s left of him anyway.”
The King paid a visit at the request of Caterham, who had said that she’d rather meet him than have a birthday party.
The Royal Family shared a video of the King’s meeting with Ethel Caterham on their social media accounts.
