Britain's oldest person has died at the age of 113

The UK’s oldest person has died at the age of 113, only six weeks away from her 114th birthday.

Bessie Camm died at a care home in Rotherham, Yorkshire, and became the oldest person in the UK last July.

The former nurse was the tenth-oldest person in the world, and lived through the reign of five monarchs and 21 prime ministers.

Bessie, who was born in Swaledale, North Yorkshire, previously attributed her longevity to ‘hard work, knowing lovely people and good food’.

Speaking in 2016, care home manager Anne Kay said: ‘Bessie is an absolute inspiration.

’She always wants to know what’s going on and as well as enjoying educational TV programmes, she enjoys watching quizzes and often answers before the contestants.’

Bessie also out-lived husband John by 45 years, after he died in 1972.

She married John Camm – who was a scientist, shortly before the Second World War, but the pair never had children.

After initially attend a quaker school, she worked at Darlington Hospital as a ward sister, before later becoming a matron at Richmond Hospital, where she worked through the war.

During her career as a nurse, Bessie cared for a young William Hague, and even attended a dinner party at his home.

‘I had a good life as a nurse, but I wouldn’t do it today — not for all the tea in China’, she said of her nursing career.

It’s now believed that the oldest person is Olive Boar from Felixstowe, Suffolk, who is 113 years and 231 days old.