Sherry-loving Gladys, UK’s oldest person, dies aged 113
SHE put her remarkable longevity down to a good diet, never smoking a cigarette and enjoying the occasional glass of sherry.
But having reached the remarkable age of 113, the oldest person in Britain has died.
Gladys Hermiston-Hooper, pictured, was born on January 18, 1903, and lived through five monarchs, 21 prime ministers, both world wars and the 1969 Moon landing. Last year she became the oldest hip replacement patient in the world.
She died at a nursing home on the Isle of Wight on Saturday after listening to her family share stories about her life and receiving a blessing.
One of six children, Mrs Hermiston Hooper was brought up in Rottingdean, East Sussex, and was an accomplished pianist. She became the oldest person in the UK when Ethel Lang, of Barnsley, died on January 15 last year aged 114.
Her husband of 55 years Leslie, a fireman, died in 1977 aged 77. A pilot in both world wars, his plane was shot down in 1940, and his wife heard nothing from him for seven months until he emerged at a hospital.
Speaking on her last birthday in January, she said: ‘I am so proud of having a nice husband, my son, and my family. Looking back through my life, the things I remember are the ending of World War I, the start and end of World War II, and the Coronation.’