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When someone lives to an extraordinary age, everyone wants to know their secret.
While most often it’s attributed to a special diet or drink hyped up in the media, 116-year-old Ethel Caterham has a different secret.
And she believes it helped her become the world’s oldest woman.
Born in 1909
At 116 years old, Ethel Caterham has officially become the oldest living person in the world — a title confirmed by Guinness World Records and LongeviQuest, the global database tracking supercentenarians.
But her story is more than a number. Ethel has witnessed history firsthand: the sinking of the Titanic, two World Wars, the first moon landing, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the rise of the internet and the iPhone and TikTok.
Born on August 21, 1909, in Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire, Ethel grew up in Tidworth, Wiltshire, as the second youngest of eight children.
Remarkably, longevity runs in the family: one of her sisters, Gladys, lived to 104.
By 18, Ethel had already set out on an extraordinary adventure, working as an au pair for a military family in British India.