Goodnight Gladys: Britain's oldest person dies in care home

Britain’s supercentenarian Gladys Hooper has died at the age of 113 and a half, at her Isle of Wight care home.

The woman who broke a Guinness World Record in 2015 when she became the oldest person to undergo a hip replacement operation, died on Saturday, 9 July at Highfield Nursing Home on the Isle of Wight.

Born on January 18, 1903 in Dulwich, south east London, Gladys died on the same day and at the same age as the US's oldest woman, Goldie Michelson.

During her life, Gladys spoke of how she witnessed the shooting down of a German Zeppelin airship in 1916.

That was among many memories she had of London. A love of music saw her become a concert pianist in the capital.

'Lover of fast cars, planes and people associated with them'

Mrs Hooper's talents didn't just extent to music.

As her son Derek Hermiston said "She loved fast cars, aeroplanes and the the people associated with them".

During her lifetime she was college friends with Amy Johnson, the aviator who became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia.

Her husband Leslie had been a pilot in the First World War and Second World War but died in 1977.

Mrs Hooper also met Thomas Edison, co-inventor of the lightbulb, when he visited her school with a lamp.

One of the UK's first female drivers

Gladys became one of the first female drivers in the early 1920s after becoming friends with Andre Citroen who sold her a car. But she insisted on it being painted a different colour from the black it came in.

Known for her fierce independence, wanted to run her own business and started a car hire firm called Autodrive. This independence led her to turn down a job offer to be managing director of Hertz.

Gladys' working life also included running a school that later became Brighton College.

She had been living with her son but it was there, while getting out of bed to go to the bathroom, that she fell and broke her hip.

After her hip operation last October, Gladys Hooper, moved to Highfield Nursing Home in Ryde. She said the secret to her longevity is staying active.

Despite her operation, her hip become displaced and "due to her grand age a decision was made not to move her and she became bedbound", Mr Hermiston said.

Couldn't wait for the next birthday

On her 112th birthday, (before breaking her hip), Gladys revealed she 'did not feel any different to when she was 70'.

Her 113th birthday celebrations included cards from well-wishers around the world and led her to remark that she couldn't wait for the next one.

"She always says she lived long because she never smoked, had a glass of sherry and lived an active life," her son recalls.

As well as a son, Mrs Hooper has four grandchildren and six-great-grandchildren.

'She seemed reasonably well, she was sleeping'

Her son announced news of her death with the words: “She passed away, she just faded, 113 and a half is a good old age.

He said: "We saw her this morning, she seemed reasonably well, she was sleeping.

“We had left her for just about an hour when they called us to tell us she had passed away.”

Emma Morano from Italy is verified as the oldest living person in the world at 116 years and 224 days, according to Gerontology Research Group. She was born 29 November 1899.

Gladys Hooper had been listed as the 12th oldest in the world. The person with the longest human life is Jeanne Calment of France (born 1875–died 1997), who lived to the age of 122 years and 164 days.