Dame Vera Lynn

Singer whose voice brought hope and inspiration during the

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.

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.

Her songs inspired a spirit of optimism and she spent her career fostering nostalgia which, during the war, was just what people felt they needed.

More recently, her words became a source of comfort to many during the coronavirus pandemic. In a televised address to the nation, the Queen channelled Dame Vera’s lyrics when she told people separated from their loved ones: “We’ll meet again.”

Dame Vera said she had been stirred by the Queen’s words.

“I watched with the rest of the country and thought it was a great encouragement during these difficult times, but I wasn’t aware that her majesty would use the lyrics at the end of her speech,” she told the Radio Times.

“I support her message of keeping strong together when we’re faced with such a terrible challenge. Our nation has faced some dark times over the years, but we always overcome.”

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.

Until 1944, Vera Lynn remained mostly in London but then she made her famous tour of Burma to entertain the troops.

Still only 24, she was stirred into action when she learned that few entertainers went to Burma, where the men of the Fourteenth had called themselves the Forgotten Army.

Her four-month tour started in a Sunderland flying boat. She transferred to smaller and smaller aircraft until she ended up on the road from Rangoon to Mandalay in a battered car.

Describing the experience later, she said it was “the trip of a lifetime” and the smell that haunted her most was the gangrene pervading the field hospitals where she spent hours talking with soldiers.

In all, she flew 25,000 miles during that time and through her songs and talking to the men about home she persuaded them they were not forgotten.

Vera Lynn was born in London on March 20 1917, the daughter of Bertram and Annie Welch, in East Ham where her father was a plumber on the docks.

She was a schoolgirl of seven at Brampton Road School, East Ham, when she made her performing debut at an East End working men’s club.

Two years later she joined a juvenile troupe and by 1932,