Ethel Caterham, Europe’s oldest living person, celebrated her 115th birthday

The Gerontology Research Group is delighted to announce that Mrs. Ethel Caterham, the oldest living person in the United Kingdom and Europe, celebrated her 115th birthday on 21 August 2024 in Surrey Heath, Surrey, England, United Kingdom.

Ethel Caterham was born on 21 August 1909 in Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire, England, and grew up in Tidworth, Wiltshire, England. She was the second-youngest of eight children. One of her siblings, Gladys Babilas (1897–2002), lived to be 104. In 1927, at the age of 18, she got a job as a nanny to a British family in India, and travelled alone for three weeks by ship to India. She worked there for three years before returning to England.

In 1931, Caterham met her future husband Norman (1905–1976), a major in the British Army, at a dinner party. The couple married in Salisbury Cathedral where Norman was a choirboy and they lived together in Harnham, England, before they were stationed in Hong Kong and Gibraltar.

While living in Hong Kong, Caterham started a nursery for local and British children where she taught English, games, and crafts. While in Gibraltar, she and her husband started their family, eventually raising two girls back in the UK. Norman died in 1976.

In 2020, at the age of 110, Caterham contracted COVID-19 during the coronavirus pandemic. However, she successfully recovered, making her one of the oldest known survivors of the disease.

On 17 January 2019, following the death of 109-year-old Kay Hurley, she became the oldest living person in the county of Surrey.

On 22 January 2022, following the death of 112-year-old Mollie Walker, she became the oldest living person in the United Kingdom.

On 19 August 2024, following the death of 117-year-old Maria Branyas Morera of Spain, she became the oldest living person in Europe.