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British woman Ethel Caterham, the world's oldest living person, celebrated her 117th birthday on Friday in southwest England, according to media reports, months after she inherited the title following the death of Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas.
Caterham, who lives at a care home in Surrey, southeast England, became the world's oldest living person in April 2025 after the death of Canabarro at age 116, the BBC reported.
The title of the oldest person ever is held by French woman Jeanne Calment, who lived to 122 years and 164 days before her death in 1997, according to Guinness World Records.
Caterham was born on Aug. 21, 1909, in the village of Shipton Bellinger in southwestern England, five years before the start of World War I. The second youngest of eight children, she has since lived through two world wars.
She is one of the oldest people to survive COVID-19, after contracting the virus in 2020 at age 110, according to Guinness World Records.
The great-grandmother is the last living subject of King Edward VII, who reigned over the United Kingdom from 1901 to 1910. Last year, Caterham was visited by King Charles III following her 116th birthday.
Her secret to longevity? "Never arguing with anyone! I listen, and I do what I like," she has said.
She has three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, having outlived both her two daughters and her husband, Norman, a lieutenant colonel in the British Army, who died in 1976.
She only stopped driving when she was just shy of 100, and played bridge well into her old age. She previously said that in her life she had "taken everything in my stride, the highs and lows."
Briton John Tinniswood held the title of world's oldest man for eight months in 2024 until his death in November at age 112.
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