The Forces' Sweetheart: Dame Vera Lynn,We'll Meet Again

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The Forces' Sweetheart: Dame Vera Lynn was the Cheryl Cole of her day

East End girl, Vera Lynn, who first started singing in working men's clubs when she was seven years old, was already an established musical star when war broke out in 1939.

Dame Vera Margaret Lynn CH DBE OStJ (née Welch; 20 March 1917 – 18 June 2020) was an English singer and entertainer whose musical recordings and performances were very popular during World War II. She is honorifically known as the "Forces' Sweetheart", having given outdoor concerts for the troops in Egypt, India and Burma during the war as part of the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA). The songs most associated with her include "We'll Meet Again",  "(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover", "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" and "There'll Always Be an England".

"Forces' Sweetheart"

She remained popular after the war, appearing on radio and television in the United Kingdom and the United States, and recording such hits as "Auf Wiederseh'n, Sweetheart" and her UK number-one single "My Son, My Son". Her last single, "I Love This Land", was released to mark the end of the Falklands War. In 2009, at the age of 92, she became the oldest living artist to top the UK Albums Chart with the compilation album We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn.   In 2014, she released the collection Vera Lynn: National Treasure and in 2017, she released Vera Lynn 100, a compilation album of hits to commemorate her centenary—it was a No. 3 hit, making her the first centenarian performer to have a Top 10 album in the charts.  By the time of her death in 2020  she had been active in the music industry for 96 years.

Lynn devoted much time and energy to charity work connected with ex-servicemen, disabled children and breast cancer. She was held in great affection by Second World War veterans and in 2000 was named the Briton who best exemplified the spirit of the 20th century.

Early life

Vera Margaret Welch was born in East Ham, Essex, now part of the London Borough of Newham, on 20 March 1917.  She was the daughter of plumber  Bertram Samuel Welch (1883–1955) and wife dressmaker Anne "Annie" Martin (1889–1975), who had married in 1913.  In 1919, when Lynn was two years old, she fell ill with diphtheritic croup and nearly died. She was sent to an isolation unit and was discharged after three months there.  As a result of her hospitalisation, her mother was very protective of her and did not allow her to visit friends or play in the street for a long time afterwards. Lynn recalled her mother was not as strict with her elder brother Roger as she was with her.

Career

She began performing publicly at the age of seven and adopted her maternal grandmother Margaret's maiden name "Lynn" as her stage name when she was eleven.  Aged 11, she joined a juvenile troupe called Madame Harris's Kracker Kabaret Kids and early in 1933 she was spotted by Howard Baker who invited her to join his band. In turn, she was taken on by Billy Cotton and briefly toured with his band in 1934 before returning to Howard Baker.

It was with Baker that she made her first record, on 17 February 1935, with a song called "It's Home".  Her first radio broadcast, with the Joe Loss Orchestra, was made on 21 August 1935.  At this point she appeared on records released by dance bands including those of Loss and of Charlie Kunz.  In 1936, her first solo record was released on the Crown label, "Up the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire".  This label was absorbed by Decca Records in 1938.  She supported herself by working as an administrative assistant to the head of a shipping management company in London's East End.  After a short stint with Loss she stayed with Kunz for a year or so during which she recorded several standard musical pieces. She joined the Ambrose band in 1937,  and remained with him until 1940, when she went solo.

Lynn is best known for the popular song "We'll Meet Again", written by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles.  She first recorded it in 1939 with Arthur Young on Novachord, and later again in 1953 accompanied by servicemen from the British Armed Forces.  The nostalgic lyrics ("We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again some sunny day") were very popular during the war and made the song one of its emblematic hits.  Amongst her other well-known wartime hits was "The White Cliffs of Dover", with words by Nat Burton, music by Walter Kent.

Her continuing popularity was ensured by the success of her weekly 30-minute radio programme Sincerely Yours, which began airing at 9:30 p.m. on 9 November 1941, with messages to British troops serving abroad. Described as "to the men of the forces – a letter in words and Music", she was accompanied by Fred Hartley and his music. Lynn and her quartet performed songs most requested by the soldiers. Lynn also visited hospitals to interview new mothers and send personal messages to their husbands overseas.

During the war years, she joined the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) and toured Egypt, India and Burma,  giving outdoor concerts for British troops. In March 1944, she went to Shamshernagar airfield in Bengal to entertain the troops before the Battle of Kohima. Her host and lifelong friend Captain Bernard Holden recalled "her courage and her contribution to morale".  In 1985, she received the Burma Star for entertaining British guerrilla units in Japanese-occupied Burma.

The Royal Variety Performance included appearances by Vera Lynn on seven occasions: 1951, 1952, 1957, 1960, 1975, 1986 and 1990.

In January 2020, a new painted portrait of Lynn was given as a gift from London Mint Office to the Royal Albert Hall in connection with the 75th anniversary of the peace in 1945.  The portrait is painted by Ross Kolby and was unveiled by Lynn's daughter Virginia Lewis-Jones and Britain's Got Talent winner Colin Thackery.

On 5 April 2020 the song "We'll Meet Again" was echoed by Queen Elizabeth II in a television address she delivered addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.  For the 75th anniversary of VE Day, Lynn and Katherine Jenkins duetted virtually (Jenkins singing next to a hologram) at the Royal Albert Hall, which was empty due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In June 2021, a wildflower meadow on the White Cliffs of Dover was named in honour of Lynn.

Honours and cultural references

Locomotive No. 3672 Dame Vera Lynn at North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

In 1976, Lynn received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the Memorial University of Newfoundland.  She received the Freedom of the City of London in 1978.  In 2000, she received a "Spirit of the 20th Century" Award in a nationwide poll in which she won 21% of the vote.  A street named in her honour, Vera Lynn Close, is situated in Forest Gate, London.   She was awarded the honorary degree of Master of Music (M.Mus.) in 1992 by the University of London.

She was the subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions, in October 1957 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre,[citation needed] and again in December 1978, for an episode which was broadcast on 1 January 1979, when Andrews surprised her at the Café Royal, London.[citation needed]

In 2018, Lynn received the Outstanding Contribution to Music award at the Classic Brit Awards.  In January 2019, it was reported that The London Mint Office had commissioned acclaimed Norwegian artist Ross Kolby to paint a portrait of Dame Vera. The painting was unveiled on 13 January 2020 and hangs in the Royal Albert Hall in London where Dame Vera performed on 52 occasions.

Lynn died on 18 June 2020 at her home in East Sussex, at the age of 103.

Lynn was given a military funeral, which was held on 10 July 2020 in East Sussex. The procession made its way from her home in Ditchling to the Woodvale Crematorium in Brighton

"We'll Meet Again" is a 1939 song by English singer Vera Lynn with music and lyrics composed and written by English songwriters Ross Parker and  Hughie Charles. The song is one of the most famous of the Second World War era, and resonated with soldiers going off to fight as well as their families and loved ones.

"Forces' Sweetheart" 

 Vera Lynn - We'll Meet Again

1939

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsM_VmN6ytk 

We'll meet again,
Don't know where, don't know when,
But I know we'll meet again
Some sunny day.
Keep smiling through,
Just like you always do,
'Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away.

So will you please say hello
To the folks that I know,
Tell them I won't be long.
They'll be happy to know
That as you saw me go,
I was singing this song

We'll meet again,
Don't know where,
Don't know when,
But I know we'll meet again,
Some sunny day.

We'll meet again,
Don't know where, don't know when,
But I know we'll meet again
Some sunny day.
Keep smiling through,
Just like you always do,
'Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away.

So will you please say hello
To the folks that I know,
Tell them I won't be long.
They'll be happy to know
That as you saw me go,
I was singing this song.

We'll meet again,
Don't know where, don't know when,
But I know we'll meet again,
Some sunny day.

We'll Meet Again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMUuuaUGff0 

We'll Meet Again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJAIzTmNE0U