Charlotte Marion Milburn Hughes
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Charlotte Marion (Milburn) Hughes (August 1,1877-March 17,1993) is the longest-lived person ever documented in the United Kingdom, despite legendary claims such as that of Thomas Parr. She was a schoolteacher but retired and married over fifty years before her death.
A former schoolteacher, she remained fit into extreme old age as she achieved public recognition for her longevity, including tea with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who she admonished against cuddling her as Hughes was a Labour supporter. When she turned 110 she flew on the Concorde to New York, the only supercentenarian air passenger ever recorded.
She became the oldest person in the United Kingdom when Scotland's Kate Begbie died in 1988, and broke the national longevity record held by Anna Eliza Williams in early 1992. Several British women including Eva Morris, the only British world's-oldest since Anna Williams, have reached 114 since, and one, Annie Jennings (1884-1999) has barely reached 115, but the record set by Mrs. Hughes still stands.
External link
- BBC News ON THIS DAY | August 1 | 1989: Britain's oldest person turns 112 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/1/newsid_3048000/3048025.stm)