Ethel Caterham becomes the world's oldest person at 115

A BRITISH woman, Ethel Caterham, became the world’s oldest person aged 115 on Thursday after the death of a Brazilian nun who had held the record, according to research groups.

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Caterham was born in a village in Hampshire on August 21, 1909, the second youngest of eight children.

She lives in a care home in Surrey, also in southern England, having outlived her husband and both her daughters.

She is now the oldest person in the world according to the US-based Gerontological Research Group (GRG) and the LongeviQuest database, after the death of 116-year-old Inah Canabarro Lucas from Brazil.

The great-grandmother is the last living subject of King Edward VII, according to the GRG, and is also the oldest British person ever, according to the “Oldest in Britain” database.