After farewelling Trump, Charles visits 116 year old Ethel Caterham, the world’s oldest living person
After formally bidding farewell to Donald Trump at Windsor, King Charles III made an altogether gentler engagement: visiting Ethel Caterham, the world’s oldest living person, at her care home in Lightwater, Surrey.
At 116, Caterham has lived through reigns stretching back to Edward VII and is the last surviving subject of that monarch. On Thursday, she welcomed Charles with warmth—and mischief.
Holding his hand as he introduced himself, Caterham immediately charmed the King with a sharp recollection of his 1969 investiture at Caernarfon Castle. “I remember when your mother crowned you,” she told him, before adding with a smile: “And all the girls were in love with you and wanted to marry you.”
The remark drew hearty laughter from Charles, who raised his eyebrows at the memory, while one of Caterham’s granddaughters confirmed: “You said that the other day—‘Prince Charles was so handsome. All the girls were in love with him.’ A true prince, and now the King.” Charles, with mock self-deprecation, quipped: “Yes, well—all that’s left of him anyway.”
Sitting side by side, the pair spoke about Caterham’s memories of a 1960s Buckingham Palace garden party, while nearby a table displayed a collection of royal birthday cards and letters. These included greetings from the late Queen Elizabeth II, cards from Charles and Camilla, and a framed letter from the King congratulating her on reaching 116 and becoming the world’s oldest person. Since turning 100, Caterham has received 17 such royal messages.
Born on 21 August 1909 in Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire, Caterham was the second youngest of eight siblings. At 18, she travelled to India to work as an au pair before meeting her husband, Norman, a lieutenant colonel in the British Army, at a dinner party in 1931. The couple lived in Salisbury before being stationed in Gibraltar and Hong Kong, where she established a nursery school. Together they had two daughters, both of whom predeceased her. Norman died in 1976.
Caterham’s life has been marked by resilience. She drove until the age of 97, survived Covid-19 at 110, and continued playing contract bridge well into her centenarian years. Her sister Gladys also lived past 100, reaching 104.
At the visit, Caterham was dressed in a sage-patterned dress, pale pink shawl and sequined gold fur-lined slippers, her eyes bright as she joked with the monarch. Three of her granddaughters—Kate Henderson, Julia Pauling and Lucy Robinson—joined the gathering.
For Charles, who had only hours earlier been immersed in high-level diplomacy, the stop was a striking change of pace: a personal encounter bridging 116 years of history. Caterham herself is a living link to another era, born just five years before the outbreak of the First World War.
Her longevity places her within touching distance of history’s greatest age record, held by Jeanne Calment of France, who lived to 122 years and 164 days. Whether Caterham approaches that milestone or not, her meeting with Charles cemented her place in royal lore—as the centenarian who reminded a monarch of the days when, in her words, “all the girls were in love with you.”
The King’s laughter, her wit, and the gathering of family underscored the poignancy of the occasion: a moment where past and present touched hands.