Sofia Shelock gets UK ‘bronze’ and Tower Hamlets ‘gold’ first 2018 baby

Tiny Sofia Shelock would probably have got a ‘gold’ if she hadn’t been pipped at the post in the race to be the first born in Britain in 2018.

Sofia Shelock... first 2018 nerwborn in east London, third in Britain. Picture source: Shelock family - Credit: Shelock family

She came in third, her 32-year-old mum Raja Mohamed reveals this week after some research, but likely to be the first in east London—so maybe that’s a Tower Hamlets ‘gold’.

Sofia was born at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel just 39 minutes after midnight on January 1, weighing a healthy 8lbs 7oz.

That was then—Sofia is now back at the family home in Commercial Road, Limehouse, weighing 9lb.

She has a big brother, three-year-old Sakaria, who mum says wants to help do everything for the baby—like brushing her fine hair.

Mum is an administrator for maintenance contractors, while dad Simon Shelock, 30, is a maintenance manager for the Marlin hotel chain in Aldgate, Canary Wharf and Stratford—so plenty of parent skills there to look after the East End’s first 2018 baby.

The UK ‘gold’ went to little Harry Ferguson at Elgin, in the Scottish Grampian region, born just 10 seconds after midnight that day, at 9lb 8oz.