Not to be confused with Grace Catherine Jones and Grace Nelsen 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: | 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 tenth-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
- Verified Supercentenarians (Listed Chronologically By Birth Date) Gerontology Research Group
- All Validated British Supercentenarians Oldest in Britain
- Britain's oldest woman, 112, burgled by thug who tricked his way into her London home Evening Standard, 4 July 2012
- Oldest person in Britain celebrates her 113th birthday Daily Record, 8 December 2012
- Grace Jones, Britain's Oldest Person, Celebrates Christmas Huffington Post, 25 December 2012
- Oldest person in UK Grace Jones dies aged 113 BBC News, 14 November 2013
- Last Briton born in the 1800s, Grace Jones, dies at 113 The Independent, 14 November 2013