{"id":5013,"date":"2026-08-21T13:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T13:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/21\/oldest-person-in-the-world-celebrates-117th-birthday\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T13:21:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T13:21:01","slug":"oldest-person-in-the-world-celebrates-117th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/21\/oldest-person-in-the-world-celebrates-117th-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Oldest person in the world celebrates 117th birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>2026-08-21 13:21:00<\/b><br \/>\n<BR>The world\u2019s oldest person is celebrating her 117th birthday after a year in which she met King Charles and stroked a llama.<BR><br \/>\nEthel Caterham, who lives at Hallmark Lakeview Care Home in Lightwater, Surrey, is marking the milestone with family and friends on Friday (21.08.26).<BR><br \/>\nIn a statement, she said: &#8220;Thank you for all of the kind birthday wishes. Even at 117, I\u2019ve had many firsts this year, from stroking a llama to holding hands with the King.<BR><br \/>\n&#8220;I\u2019ve had a lovely day celebrating with my family and friends, and I look forward to seeing what next year brings.&#8221;<BR><br \/>\nCaterham became the world\u2019s oldest living person in April 2025, following the death of Brazilian nun Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas at the age of 116.<BR><br \/>\nJust weeks after her 116th birthday, she was visited by the King, who held her hand as he introduced himself.<BR><br \/>\nDuring their meeting, Mrs Caterham recalled attending the future monarch\u2019s 1969 investiture as Prince of Wales, when he was 21.<BR><br \/>\nShe cheekily told him: &#8220;All the girls were in love with you and wanted to marry you.&#8221;<BR><br \/>\nBorn on August 21, 1909, in Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire, Caterham was the second-youngest of eight siblings and is the last surviving subject of Edward VII, who died in 1910.<BR><br \/>\nAt 18, she travelled to India, where she worked as an au pair for a military family. <BR><br \/>\nShe later met her husband, Norman, a British Army lieutenant colonel, at a dinner party in 1931.<BR><br \/>\nThe couple lived in Salisbury before moving with his postings to Gibraltar and Hong Kong. <BR><br \/>\nCaterham established a nursery school in Hong Kong and raised two daughters, both of whom died before her. <BR><br \/>\nNorman died in 1976.<BR><br \/>\nHer extraordinary longevity has run in the family as her sister Gladys lived to the age of 104.<BR><br \/>\nCaterham continued driving until she was 97 and played contract bridge well into her centenarian years. <BR><br \/>\nShe also survived COVID-19 in 2020, aged 110.<BR><br \/>\nDespite reaching 117, she still has some way to go to claim the record for the oldest person ever.<BR><br \/>\nThat title belongs to Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who lived to 122 years and 164 days, according to Guinness World Records.<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Visit Bang Bizarre (main website) <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><script src=\"https:\/\/geo.dailymotion.com\/player\/xtbac.js\" data-video=\"\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2026-08-21 13:21:00 The world\u2019s oldest person is celebrating her 117th birthday after a year in which she met King Charles and stroked a llama. Ethel Caterham, who lives at Hallmark&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bizarre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5014,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5013\/revisions\/5014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}