Hong Kong, August 23 – British woman Ethel Caterthem has celebrated her 117th birthday, having lived through two world wars, travelled to India and Hong Kong, and survived COVID-19 at the age of 110.
Caterthem, who was born on August 21, 1909, marked her birthday on Saturday. The BBC has identified her as the world’s oldest living person.
She lives at the Lakeview Care Home in Lightwater, England. In April 2025, she became the world’s oldest living person following the death of Brazilian nun Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas, who was 116.
According to Guinness World Records, Caterthem is among the oldest people known to have survived COVID-19. She contracted the virus in 2020 at the age of 110 and later recovered.
She is also believed to be the last living person to have lived during the reign of King Edward VII.
Caterthem grew up in Tidworth, Wiltshire, and was the seventh of eight siblings. At the age of 18, she travelled to India in 1927 and began working as a nanny for a military family.
She met her future husband, Norman, at a dinner in Britain in 1931. Norman was a lieutenant colonel in the British Army. The couple later lived in Hong Kong, where Caterthem established a school for children.
The couple eventually returned to Britain and raised two daughters. Both daughters have since died. Norman died in 1976. Caterthem now has three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Her sister Gladys Babylas also lived a long life, reaching the age of 104 years and 78 days before her death on March 9, 2002.
The record for the longest-confirmed human lifespan remains held by Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days.
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