{"id":600351,"date":"2026-08-21T16:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T16:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/600351\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T16:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T16:30:17","slug":"worlds-oldest-person-celebrates-117th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/600351\/","title":{"rendered":"World’s oldest person celebrates 117th birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world’s oldest person has celebrated her 117th birthday in the UK today, attributing her longevity to moderation.<\/p>\n

Ethel Caterham has become the first person in recorded history to reach the age of 117 and is one of only 13 people in recorded history to reach the milestone.<\/p>\n

Ms Caterham, who is living in a care home in Surrey, said she “enjoyed everything in life but in moderation”.<\/p>\n

“I never argue with anyone. I listen to what they say, and then do as I like,” she added.<\/p>\n

She was born on 21 August 1909 in Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire.<\/p>\n

At 18, she travelled by ship to India to work as a nanny before returning to England, where she married a British army officer.<\/p>\n

\"Jo\u00e3o
\nThe world’s oldest man Jo\u00e3o Marinho Neto had a birthday message for Ethel Caterham<\/p>\n

The couple later lived in Gibraltar and Hong Kong and had two daughters.<\/p>\n

Ms Caterham remained independent throughout her later life. She learned how to drive at the age of 67 after her husband’s death and continued driving until she was 97.<\/p>\n

She received a birthday message from the world’s oldest man who lives in Brazil.<\/p>\n

Jo\u00e3o Marinho Neto, 113, smiled for a photograph holding a message saying “Parab\u00e9ns Ethel” – Portuguese for “Congratulations Ethel.”<\/p>\n

The world’s oldest man also sent Ms Caterham birthday wishes when she turned 116 last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world’s oldest person has celebrated her 117th birthday in the UK today, attributing her longevity to moderation.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-600351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}