The Honourable Katherine Plunket was an Irish aristocrat from Ballymascanlan, County Louth, a prolific botanical illustrator and the oldest born native person from Ireland, at 111 years and 327 days.
Background
Plunket was born at Kilsaran, near Castlebellingham in County Louth. The eldest of six children, one of whom died in infancy, she was a granddaughter of William Plunket, 1st Baron Plunket, Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Her father Thomas Plunket, 2nd Baron Plunket (1792–1866), was a junior Church of Ireland clergyman when she was born and later became the Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry.
Her mother Louise Jane Foster (married in 1819) was the daughter of John William Foster of Fanevalley, County Louth, Member of Parliament for Dunleer, and was related to the Earl of Clermont.
Career
She was baptised Anglican in Kilsaran Church on 13 December 1820 as Catherine Plunket, though she spelled her name with a K for her entire life. She inherited from her mother one of the family"s ancestral homes, Ballymascanlon House near Dundalk, and oversaw the upkeep of the home and gardens until she contracted bronchitis at the age of 102 (her only serious health problem). The house is now a hotel.
Plunket was the oldest person ever born in Ireland, and the second oldest person from Ireland, as fellow Irish woman supercentenarian Kathleen Snavely was born in the United States.
These were bound in a volume which was presented in 1903 to the Royal College of Science, and was later transferred to the Museum of Science and Art in the National Museum of Ireland. In 1970 it was part of the collections which were transferred to the Irish National Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin.
Although it was not known at the time, Plunket became the oldest recognised person in the world at 8:00 a.m. on 4 December 1928, after the death of Delina Filkins, at the age of 108 years and 12 days, spanning a little over three years. As well as being the longest-lived Irish person, Plunket lived longer than anyone who died in Ireland or Britain, and at 109 received a telegram from King George V, holding the longevity record title for 38 years, until 1970, when Ada Roe lived to be 12 days older.
She was included in the first ever Guinness World Records (published in 1955), and is the only alleged supercentenarian listed then to stand the burden of scrutiny in the years since.
She attributed her longevity to the unrustled carefree aspect of her life. She died on 14 October 1932, a month shy of her 112th birthday and her obituary was published in numerous Irish media publications, and in England in The London Times, a telegram of condolence was sent to her relatives by King George V.
