King Charles has met the world’s oldest living person, 116-year-old Ethel Caterham, during a visit to her Surrey care home.
Mrs Caterham, who became the world’s oldest person in April, told the King she vividly remembered his investiture as Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle more than five decades ago.
She said, “I remember when your mother crowned you in Caernarfon Castle. And all the girls were in love with you and wanted to marry you.”
A long royal connection
The King, now 76, smiled as one of Mrs Caterham’s granddaughters, Kate Henderson, joined the conversation, recalling how her grandmother often praised him.
“You were saying that the other day, weren’t you?” she asked. “You said ‘Prince Charles was so handsome. All the girls were in love with him. A true prince — and now the King.’”
In response, Charles quipped: “Yes, well, all that’s left of him anyway,” prompting laughter in the room.
Mrs Caterham marked her 116th birthday quietly with family in August, but had previously said she would celebrate properly if the King visited her in person.
The monarch fulfilled that wish on Thursday, shortly after bidding farewell to US President Donald Trump during his UK trip.
Mrs Caterham has received 17 birthday cards from the King and his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, since turning 100.
In 2023, she was featured on the Royal Family’s official Instagram page, which showed her receiving her 114th birthday card from Charles.
Earlier this year, when she was confirmed as the world’s oldest person, she was sent a signed letter of congratulations from the King.
Life spanning three centuries
Born on 21 August 1909 in Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire, Mrs Caterham is the last surviving subject of King Edward VII, who died in 1910.
She worked as an au pair in India at the age of 18 before returning to Britain, where she later met her husband, Lieutenant Colonel Norman Caterham, at a dinner party in 1931.
The couple lived in Gibraltar and Hong Kong, where he was stationed, and Mrs Caterham opened a nursery school while raising their two daughters.
Both of her daughters died before her, and her husband passed away in 1976. One of her sisters, Gladys, lived to be 104.
Remarkably active well into later life, Mrs Caterham drove until she was 97, played bridge past the age of 100, and survived coronavirus in 2020 at the age of 110.
Her meeting with the King marks another milestone in a life that has already spanned three centuries, eight monarchs, and two world wars.
