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Not to be confused with Grace Catherine Jones and Grace Nelsen Jones.

Grace Adelaide Jones
Grace Adelaide Jones
Birth: 7 December 1899
Bermondsey, London, England, UK
Death: 14 November 2013
Bermondsey, London, England, UK
Age: 113 years, 342 days
Country: United Kingdom UK
Validated

Grace Adelaide Jones (7 December 1899 – 14 November 2013) was a British supercentenarian who, at the time of her death, was the oldest living person in the UK and the last British person born in the 1800s. She was also one of the last surviving people in the world born before 1900. Her age has been validated by the Gerontology Research Group.

Biography

Early Life

Jones was born on 7 December 1899 in Bermondsey, London, England. She never married in her lifetime; her only fiancé, Albert Rees, was killed in the First World War. She later turned down offers of marriage to care for her sick mother and siblings.

Jones spent most of her life in Bermondsey, where she worked as a seamstress and also in a biscuit factory. In addition, she worked for the government during and after the Second World War, before retiring in the early 1960s.

Later Life

Jones celebrated her 110th birthday in December 2009. She still lived in her own flat, and was regularly visited by her local MP, Liberal Democrat party deputy leader Simon Hughes. She attributed her long life to eating “good English food, never anything frozen”.

In December 2011, five days before her 112th birthday, Jones's flat was burgled by a man who stole her £300 pension. The following day, an attempted robbery took place. A month later, she was burgled for a third time, on this occasion by 46 year-old Jesse Coker, who stole her purse and other items. Coker was caught and jailed for four years and five months in July 2012.

Jones died on 14 November 2013 at the age of 113 years, 342 days. She had suffered a fall a few weeks previously.

Longevity Records

Following the death of 112 year-old Violet Wood on 29 February 2012, Jones became the oldest living person in the United Kingdom as well as the last living British person born in the 1800s. However, she was not the last living British person born in the 19th Century, as Ethel Lang of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was born in 1900 (which was part of the 19th Century). Following Jones's death, Lang became the UK's oldest living person.

At the time of her death, Jones was the youngest of just eight living people born in the 1800s whose age has been validated by the Gerontology Research Group. She was the second-oldest living validated person in Europe, after Italian woman Emma Morano who was eight days older. Jones is currently the ninth-oldest ever British person on record.

Jones is one of three supercentenarians (and one of two British supercentenarians) with the names Grace Jones; the others are Grace Nelsen Jones (1893–2006) and Grace Catherine Jones (1906–2019).

Gallery

References


United Kingdom's Oldest Living Person Titleholders (VE)

Frederick Stabbins • Jane ListerMartha Truelove • Ann Sharp • Jane Raby • Frances Smith • William Walker • Ann Russell • Eliza Roff • Ellen Palmer • Rachel MacArthur • Rachel SwainMary Davey • Thomas Pope • John Francklow • Rebecca Lees • Sarah Fitt • Elizabeth Sellwood • Matilda Coppins • Elizabeth Whitehead • Emma Rooke • Margaret Lunn • Sarah Humphrey • Caroline BealeFanny Hopkins • Elizabeth Etheridge • Sophia Wellstead • Rhoda Harris • Emma Weeks • Edith Grellier • Mary WorthingtonJane Stoneman • Ellen Dart • Elizabeth Kensley • Hannah SmithJohn Mosley TurnerAda Roe • Alice StevensonElizabeth WatkinsFrederick Butterfield • Rose Heeley • Agnes Helyar • James Harrow • Sarah Morgan • Lilias WilliamsFlorence PannellJeanetta ThomasAlice Brewster • Anna Eliza Williams • Kate Begbie • Charlotte Hughes • Daisy Adams • Rebecca Hewison • Annie Scott • Rachel Wieselberg • Lucy Askew • Annie Jennings • Eva Morris • Amy Hulmes • Nellie Bradley • Gladys Hawley • Lucy d'Abreu • Judy Ingamells • Emmeline BriceAnnie Knight • Ada Mason • Florrie Baldwin • Eunice BowmanAnnie Turnbull • Elsie SteeleMargaret Fish • Violet Wood • Grace A Jones • Ethel Lang • Gladys Hooper • Bessie CammOlive BoarGrace C JonesGwen PayneHilda ClulowBob WeightonJoan HocquardLilian PriestGertrude KingstonMollie WalkerEthel Caterham

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