Singer thought war would be end of career

Forces sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn stirred the hearts of millions with songs and a personality that brought hope and inspiration during the darkest days of the Second World War.

Decades later her name is as enduring as that of Sir Winston Churchill as a figure who played a huge role in keeping up the spirits of a civilian population suffering under the Blitz and the troops training at home and fighting overseas.

It is often forgotten that during those momentous days she was still a young woman in her early 20s, yet she travelled thousands of miles, often at great personal risk, to entertain the troops and to comfort them with words of hope.

In particular she visited the “Forgotten Fourteenth Army”, which was still fighting the bitter Burma campaign after VE Day.

Dame Vera, who died aged 103, eschewed glamour and the pampered life. She was as much a humanitarian as an entertainer and everybody loved her.

She recounted many years later that on the outbreak of war “one of my first thoughts was, ‘There goes entertainment and my career with it’.

“It seemed to me then that entertainment would be the last thing people were going to worry about once the bombs started falling, but it turned out not to be the case at all.”

Her work did not end when the war was over – throughout her life, she remained an indefatigable and outspoken supporter of military veterans, through to their old age.

Last month Dame Vera also became the oldest artist to reach the top 40 in the UK album charts.

A collection of her greatest hits reached number 30 in the Official Charts Company rankings following the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

Dame Vera supported many charities and was a stalwart of several ex-servicemen’s organisations.

In 1991 she played a key part in forcing the government to end the anomaly under which a war widow who lost her husband after 1973 received a far higher pension than a widow of a soldier who died before that date.

She was also a proud holder of the Burma Star and regularly attended the Burma veterans’ annual reunions.

She was outspoken in her opposition to the Duke of Edinburgh attending the funeral of the Japanese emperor Hirohito.

She felt it was wrong that Philip should go since he was president of the Burma Star Association and the nephew of Earl Mountbatten of Burma. She urged that a younger member of the royal family represent the Queen to fulfil protocol.