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DAME VERA LYNN AT 100
With a new album, concert and TV documentary marking Dame Vera Lynn’s milestone birthday, she shares the highlights of her astonishing life – and her secrets to staying sprightly.
To celebrate her milestone birthday this month, the legendary Forces’ Sweetheart reveals the highlights of her extraordinary life
Afternoon tea is the undoubted highlight of the day for Digby, the cheeky Jack Russell terrier who keeps Dame Vera Lynn company. It’s when the curtain goes up on what the family refers to as the Vera And Digby Cabaret Show. As soon as Vera’s daughter Virginia has poured us all a cuppa and given her mother a slice of lemon drizzle cake, Digby appears at Vera’s feet and looks at her with begging eyes. ‘Now wait a minute,’ says Vera, a look of mock sternness on her face as she sprinkles a few crumbs on the carpet. ‘Wait…’ Digby sits upright as he waits for the command. ‘OK,’ she says with a smile, and he instantly hoovers up every piece.
Dame Vera has invited us to her Sussex home to discuss her big birthday – she’ll turn 100 on Monday 20 March, a landmark for both her and the nation. The original Forces’ Sweetheart will forever be linked in our minds with helping Britain through its darkest hour. While we stood alone against Nazi Germany and bombs rained down on our cities, Vera was buoying spirits with songs such as We’ll Meet Again and The White Cliffs Of Dover.
To mark her centenary a new album featuring re-orchestrated versions of her songs and contributions from singers such as Alfie Boe and Aled Jones is being released on Friday 17 March; a tribute concert featuring Russell Watson and Alexander Armstrong among others is being staged at the London Palladium the following evening; and a BBC2 documentary, Happy 100th Birthday Dame Vera Lynn, in which she looks back on her life and celebrity fans pay tribute, will also be shown on 18 March.
Given her age, it’s understandable Vera will not be at the Palladium event – but she has recorded messages of thanks for all the support she’s enjoyed over the years to be played on the night. ‘I don’t go anywhere much now,’ she says as we chat in her sitting room, surrounded by photographs of her and her late husband Harry, Virginia and other members of her family.
That said, Dame Vera is in remarkable shape for a centenarian. ‘I’m not as slim as I was,’ she says. ‘You should have seen me in my twenties, but I was so active then. When you get older you spread a little.’ So what’s the secret of living to such a grand age? ‘You have to know your limitations. I’ve always been careful what I eat, and how much,’ she says. ‘I don’t eat red meat these days but I love soups and fish.’
She does daily ‘workouts’ too. ‘I do a few exercises while hanging on to my towel rail and stretch a little when sitting down. It’s not much but it keeps the circulation going.’ And she’s never smoked. ‘I inhaled enough singing in working men’s clubs,’ she laughs.
Although the war ended 72 years ago, Vera can vividly recall it. ‘I was living in London during the Blitz and I’ll never forget the “pop-pop” of the anti-aircraft guns in the park. I remember driving through the dark streets during the blackout in my little green soft-top Austin 10, with dimmed headlights and my tin helmet at my side. I was lucky in a way, though: being an entertainer I was allowed extra petrol coupons so I could get around. I was told to jump out of the car and lie flat in the gutter if there was an air raid – I did it once and that was enough!’ On one occasion she was forced to go into a public air raid shelter. ‘It was so claustrophobic, and it didn’t even have a loo,’ she recalls. ‘After a while I thought, “Anything’s better than this” and walked out. I knew I was taking my chances but I couldn’t stand it any longer.’
Food was also in short supply. ‘A tiny piece of butter had to last a week,’ she says. ‘Everything was plain and simple, you just had to make it as interesting as you could. But ironically, I think we ate a lot more healthily in those days. There’s so much choice today I think people can over-indulge.’
Born Vera Welch in East Ham, London, during the First World War, Vera was one of two children – her elder brother Roger turns 103 next month! She started performing while still at school, adopting her maternal grandmother’s maiden name Lynn as her stage name at 11. ‘Showbusiness is really the only life I’ve ever known,’ she says. ‘I was singing in clubs when I was seven.’ She soon began ‘gigging’ with dance bands, made her first radio broadcast in 1935, and by the late 30s she was singing on records cut by Joe Loss’s band among others.
Then she came across We’ll Meet Again. ‘I instantly sensed there was something special about it,’ she recalls. ‘It was the perfect song for the times – and it’s still my favourite of all the songs I’ve sung.’ She recorded it in September 1939 – the month the Second World War began – and ‘it became something of a hit’, in her own modest words. ‘Everybody hoped they would see their sweetheart again when the war was over and the boys were back home,’ says Vera. ‘It might seem tame to young people but it meant a lot to us and I think it has a timeless quality.’
Her wartime hits aren’t the only reason Vera has been accorded national treasure status. She also presented the popular wartime radio programme Sincerely Yours, reading out messages to troops overseas and singing the troops’ most-requested songs. ‘People forget how important the radio was in the days before television,’ she says. And perhaps most famously, she went to the Far East to entertain the troops of the 14th Army in Burma – then a British colony – which the Japanese had invaded in December 1941. The operations of the so-called Forgotten Army were being conducted so far from Britain they were being overlooked in the news.
‘It was unusual for an entertainer to go to a war zone to perform for the troops,’ recalls Vera, who flew out to the jungle via Egypt and India. ‘I volunteered but had to get special permission from the powers-that-be before I could go. I was even made an honorary colonel by the military so I could go into the officers’ mess for my food!’
She performed concerts on makeshift stages in forward camps ‘just a stone’s throw from the fighting’ with nothing but a small piano for accompaniment. ‘The boys would come out of the jungle – they were always very respectful and would good-naturedly call out, “How’s London? How’s eve-
‘The only life I’ve ever really known is showbusiness’
ryone coping?” – and then slip back in afterwards,’ she recalls. ‘I often think about the boys I met out there and the suffering they endured.’
The worst thing about being in Burma was the mosquitoes, she says. ‘I could hardly ever wear the sleeveless pink dress I’d brought with me, and had to wear khaki trousers and shirts with long sleeves. That’s why all the pictures from the time show me in my army fatigues.’ Going to the hairdresser’s was ‘a distant memory’ and ‘any make-up would run because you would perspire so much – it took me every effort just to keep my lipstick on!’ Was she ever worried for her own safety? ‘No,’ she replies, still the living embodiment of the Blitz Spirit. ‘Why should I be worried? I was no different from anybody else – we were all just hoping that if a bomb dropped it wouldn’t hit us!’
Dame Vera welcomes the reworking of her classics on the new album, on which her original vocals and fresh recordings by guest stars have been added to newly orchestrated tracks. Alfie Boe sings on We’ll Meet Again, Alexander Armstrong on The White Cliffs Of Dover and Aled Jones on As Time Goes By. She regrets she couldn’t duet with them in person, but says, ‘It’s wonderful to hear all these old songs again. The important thing is not to lose any of the feeling of the songs.’
In 2009, aged 92, Vera became the oldest living artist to top the UK album charts with a ‘best of’ record – and in 2014 her album of wartime songs to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day, Vera Lynn: National Treasure, reached No 13, making her the oldest artist to reach the top 20. Her record company is hoping she can notch up another first with this latest release.
She’s met a who’s who of the great and good including the Queen and the Queen Mother ‘a number of times’, Winston Churchill and wartime top brass such as Field Marshal Montgomery and Field Marshal Sl im, who led the 14th Army to eventual victory in Burma. She’s taken part in three Royal Variety shows and performed with everyone from Cliff Richard to Morecambe & Wise. ‘They were particularly lovely,’ she recalls. ‘And Cliff went on to become a good friend.’ Her last official performance was at the VE Day 50th anniversary concert outside Buckingham Palace in 1995. ‘It was a good place to finish,’ she says. ‘I felt I’d sung for long enough.’
So what does she regard as the highlights of her life? ‘My wedding to Harry in 1941 was special even if it was very simple,’ she says. Harry, who died in 1998, was a clarinetist and saxophonist in Bert Ambrose’s band, with whom Vera had toured. ‘I wore a white suit and food was rationed so it wasn’t like today’s weddings.’
Becoming friendly with the Queen Mother, who she first met at a royal command performance at Windsor Castle in 1942 to celebrate Princess Elizabeth’s 16th birthday, also ranks highly. ‘Elizabeth and her sister Margaret were so pretty and so polite. I sang my hit Yours, which I believe was her favourite song at the time. I became particularly fond of the Queen Mother. We shared a bond because of our life- Vera with her husband Harry in the 60s and (left) today long association with the Blitz and our support for veterans – and I discovered that she really did like to be called the Queen Mum!’ Pointing to a photograph of the two of them together, Vera adds, ‘I love this – it captures us sharing a joke. Behind us a guardsman is looking on fondly, as if to say, “Take a look at these two!” I often look at it.’
She’s very proud of being made a Dame of the British Empire in 1975 for her charitable work, and a Companion of Honour in 2016 for services to entertainment and charity – but she’s every bit as proud of being given the Burma Star, awarded to all those who served in the Burma Campaign. ‘I can now see that the highlight of my life was being given the opportunity to entertain the boys myself,’ she says.
N owa da y s Dame Vera lives quietly here with Virginia and sonin-law Tom, and a full-time carer. Amo n g her favourite TV programmes are Antiques Roadshow and Agatha Christie dramas like Poirot and Miss Marple. ‘I love a good murder mystery,’ she laughs. She also makes a point of ‘always watching the TV coverage of the Remembrance Sunday commemorations in November and the Queen’s Speech on Christmas Day’. Unlike many people half her age she’s also a great reader, lapping up Victorian murder mysteries by her favourite author Emily Brightwell. ‘I always look forward to reading my Daily Mail too,’ she says.
For all the fanfare surrounding her birthday, Vera will be celebrating quietly with a private family dinner at home. Her one sadness? ‘It would have been nice if Harry had been here,’ she says. ‘But I’ve achieved far more than I ever expected when I started singing all those years ago.’ The album Vera Lynn 100 will be released by Decca on 17 March. The concert 100: A Tribute To Dame Vera Lynn is on 18 March at the London Palladium. Happy 100th Birthday Dame Vera Lynn will also be shown on 18 March on BBC2.
‘The Queen Mum really did like being called that’