Vera’s place for forgotten ‘boys’
DAME Vera Lynn spent three months visiting the front line in Burma, comforting the dying and bringing Allied forces hope from home.
Her daughter Virginia Lewisjones, 75, says: “Mummy always said going to Burma was the most important and significant thing she ever did. She said she took those soldiers a piece of home, reminded them what was waiting for them.
“She went to places nobody else would. She was very close to the front line, and endured incredible hardships. She pretty much lived as a soldier.
“Captain Tom Moore also said Burma was so special to him, so far from home… with conditions as bad as they could get.
“Mummy didn’t just sing, she went to the hospitals, she stayed with ‘the boys’, as she called them. She kept a bullet removed from one chap’s leg in Burma, and a special scrap book diary of Burma which she showed to almost nobody. She wasn’t supposed to keep it, but she did!
“She just wanted to help other people and put her own safety, comfort and wellbeing second. People think her legacy is her music, but in my mind, it’s her charity work.
“When she was older she said to me she felt she couldn’t do as much to help all the charities she supported. I told her if she put her name to campaigns she would make a difference.
“She put this into practice a few years ago when the National Trust was having problems with developers building on the
Dover cliffs – the moment she stepped in to offer her support, the White Cliffs of Dover were saved for the nation by its very own sweetheart.
“And her name will carry on having the same gravitas and weight for years to come. She enjoyed the Far East in the war, which is a bit weird, but it was one of the most important parts of her life, living in the middle of nowhere, doing her bit.
“There’s a story of some guys walking through the jungle in Burma, who found a photo of her pinned to a tree. We still don’t know what happened to that photo, but she was voted the Forces’ Sweetheart for good reason, so I’m guessing it might still be there now, a reminder for anyone who goes what she did and who she was.
“She always had a special place in her heart for the forgotten soldiers, because she felt she was one of them – she was there, living what they lived. She made a real point of taking time out every
15th August to pay her respects and remember the
fallen.”