Charlotte 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 when she was 63. Her husband died in 1980, aged 103.
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 up to her as Mrs. Hughes was a Labour supporter. Mrs. Hughes told Mrs Thatcher that she "Supported Labour". However, she described the Prime Minister as "personally a very nice woman". When she turned 110 she flew on the Concorde to New York, one of only two supercentenarian air passengers 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 until then by Anna Eliza Williams, in early 1992. Several British women including Eva Morris (who died at almost 115), the only British world's-oldest since Williams, have reached 114 since, and one, Annie Jennings (1884-1999), has barely reached 115, but the record set by Mrs. Hughes still stands.
