IMDB

Actor

1917-03-20 · East Ham, London, England, UK · Female

3 series in the catalog

Dame Vera Margaret Lewis (née Welch; 20 March 1917 – 18 June 2020), known professionally as Vera Lynn, was an English singer and entertainer whose musical recordings and performances were 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. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography wrote of Lynn, "Her reassuring voice and mastery of radio made her the forces' sweetheart in the Second World War—a connection she fostered with her ongoing commitment to veterans and memory of the war." The songs most associated with her include "We'll Meet Again", "(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover" and "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square".

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". 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 2017, Decca Records released Vera Lynn 100, a collection of younger artists duetting with archive recordings by Lynn. Issued 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 a plumber, Bertram Samuel Welch, (1883–1955) and his wife and dressmaker, Anne "Annie", née 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 that 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. 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 Baker.

It was with Baker that she made her first record on 17 February 1935, "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.

Wartime career

Lynn's wartime contribution began when she would sing to people who were using London's tube station platforms as air raid shelters. She would drive there in her Austin 10 car. Between 1937 and 1940, she also toured with Bert Ambrose as part of the Ambrose Octet; the group appeared in broadcasts for the BBC and for Radio Luxembourg. She left Ambrose in 1940.

During the Phoney War in the early months of World War II, the Daily Express asked British servicemen to name their favourite musical performers: Vera Lynn came out on top and as a result became known as "the Forces' Sweetheart". On 1 July 1940, Lynn made her first appearance as a "fully fledged solo act" at the New Hippodrome in Coventry.

Lynn appeared in the revue Applesauce! with Max Miller, which commenced on 22 August 1940 at the Holborn Empire and ran until 9 September 1940. Its run was curtailed due to a bomb destroying the theatre. The revue continued at the London Palladium from 5 March 1941 and ended on 29 November that year. Lynn had to leave the show for a while in July 1941 to have her appendix removed.

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 and 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. However, in the aftermath of the fall of Singapore in February 1942 the programme was taken off air after the broadcast on 22 March 1942 for 18 months out of fear that the sentimental nature of her songs would undermine the "virile" nature of British soldiers. Instead, "more traditionally martial classical music" was promoted. Lynn returned with a regular show called "It's Time for Vera Lynn" on the BBC's Forces programme on 31 October 1943, when she was accompanied by Peter Yorke and His Orchestra.

During the war years, she joined the Entertainments National Service Association 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.

Between 1942 and 1944, she appeared in three movies with wartime themes. Firstly, she starred in a film called We'll Meet Again, in 1943 which was based on her own life story, that of a dancer who becomes a radio star. She went on to make two more films during the war, Rhythm Serenade (1943) and One Exciting Night (1944). In Rhythm Serenade she played a school teacher. After her school is closed, she tries to join up. However, she is persuaded to organise a nursery for a munitions factory. One Exciting Night (also known as You Can't Do Without Love) was a dramatic musical comedy in which she helps thwart a gang of art thieves.

Postwar career

Lynn's only child, daughter Virginia Penelope Ann Lewis, was born on 10 March 1946. After the war, Lynn had wanted to concentrate on being a mother and wife. However, her unfulfilled contract with Decca Records and financial pressures meant that she was lured back into showbusiness in 1947. She started a new radio show called Vera Lynn Sings on the BBC's Light Programme on 16 February 1947. This was…