World’s oldest person Ethel Caterham turns 117 years old

The world’s oldest person, Ethel Caterham, marked her 117th birthday on Saturday surrounded by four generations of family, blowing out candles on a Victoria sponge cake at her care home in Guildford, Surrey. Born on June 21, 1908 — three years before the Titanic set sail on its doomed maiden voyage — she has now outlived every documented human being on the planet.

A life that spans a century of history

Caterham was six years old when the First World War broke out. She was 31 when the second began. She watched the moon landing on a black-and-white television set, saw the Berlin Wall fall, and then, at the age of 110, tested positive for Covid-19 and recovered. Fully. Without hospitalisation.

It’s the kind of biography that sounds like fiction. But every detail is verified, her age confirmed through birth certificates and records held by the Gerontology Research Group, which has tracked her case for over a decade.

The birthday celebration

Saturday’s party drew 34 family members to Sunrise Care Home on Epsom Road, including three great-great-grandchildren, the youngest of whom is just 18 months old. Staff decorated the common room with photographs spanning nine decades — Caterham as a young woman in the 1930s, a mother in the 1950s, a grandmother in the 1980s.

She reportedly ate two slices of cake.

“Ethel is an extraordinary woman not just for her age but for her spirit,” said Dr. Patricia Nguyen, a gerontologist at King’s College London who has studied Caterham’s health records. “She’s sharp, she’s curious, and she still asks us questions we can’t always answer.”

What’s her secret?

Caterham herself, when asked the inevitable question, is characteristically brief. According to her daughter Margaret, 91, she always says the same thing: porridge every morning, no fuss, and early nights. She doesn’t drink alcohol and never has. She also, family members note, has a sharp temper for nonsense and won’t tolerate being talked down to.

Scientists aren’t entirely convinced it’s the porridge. Researchers studying supercentenarians — people who reach 110 or beyond — point to a combination of genetics, low chronic inflammation markers, and what some describe as psychological resilience. Caterham lost her husband in 1974 and a son in 2009. She didn’t stop moving forward.

What comes next

The Guinness World Records organisation officially recognised her status as the world’s oldest living person in March, following the death of a 116-year-old woman in Brazil. Caterham is now also considered a strong candidate for the title of oldest person ever verified, a record currently held by Jeanne Calment of France, who died in 1997 at 122 years and 164 days.

She’s got five years to go. And if her track record means anything at all, it would be unwise to bet against her.