Oldest Briton dies just six weeks short of her 114th birthday.
Bessie Camm was born in North Yorkshire in 1904 – and worked for much of her life as a nurse after turning 40 during World War Two.
Her husband John died in 1972 – and the pair had no children.
She put the secrets of her longevity down to “good food, hard work and knowing lovely people”.
She died in Rotherham aged 113 and 325 days – six weeks short of turning 114 – making her the 10th oldest person in the world.
The UK’s new oldest person is now believed to be Olive Boar, of Felixstowe, Suffolk, who is 113 and 231 days.
Bessie was born when King Edward VII was on the throne and Arthur Balfour was prime minister.
She attended a Quaker School before qualifying as a nurse in 1926.
The record-breaker then worked at Darlington Hospital as a ward sister and then a theatre sister at Montagu Hospital in Mexborough.
She was matron at Richmond Hospital, where she worked during the Second World War.
One Bessie’s most famed patients was former Tory leader William Hague.
She once attended a dinner party at his parents’ home when Mr Hague, now 57, was only a young boy.
Mrs Camm previously said of her career as a nurse: “I had a good life as a nurse, but I wouldn’t do it today — not for all the tea in China.”
