The world’s oldest person Ethel Caterham celebrates her super-sweet 116th birthday

The oldest person in the world is celebrating her 116th birthday today and says she won’t speak to anyone about her milestone – with one exception.

Ethel Caterham was born on August 21, 1909, in Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire, the last surviving subject of Edward VII.

The super-centenarian – meaning a person who is aged 110 or older – is also the very last known living person to be born in the 1900s decade.

The care home where Ethel is living told Metro she’s appreciative of all the well-wishes, but has declined any interviews on her special day.

They added: ‘She prefers to spend the day quietly with her family so that she can enjoy it at her own pace.’

But the birthday girl might make one exception, they added: ‘The King may be her one concession, understandably!’

It’s unknown if King Charles has reached out to the oldest woman in the world for her sweet 116th, but we’d be overjoyed if he did.

Ethel has lived a very full life, and is only the third British person to ever reach 115, and the first since Annie Jennings more than two decades earlier in 1999.

At the age of 18, Ethel was employed as an au pair to a military family in India, where she lived for three years.

She returned to the UK in 1931 and met her future husband, Norman, at a dinner party, before marrying him in 1933 at Salisbury Cathedral.

He later became a lieutenant colonel in the Royal Army Pay Corps, and the couple lived in Harnham before being stationed in Hong Kong and later Gibraltar.

While living in Hong Kong, Ethel set up a nursery to teach English, and in Gibraltar, the couple had two daughters whom they raised back in England.

She has been living in a care home in Lightwater, where she celebrated her last birthday with family and friends.

The soon-to-be 116-year-old has a large family, with three granddaughters and five great-grandchildren. They attribute her longevity to a life of resilience and adaptability.

Laws still in place in 1909 that have since been abolished

Ethel was born at a time when capital punishment was still widely used for crimes like murder and treason in the UK.

It was also illegal to be drunk while in charge of a horse, cow – or a steam engine.

Most importantly, women were not permitted to vote in parliamentary elections and had nearly no rights to property and legal independence.

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