Born during a global conflict, she’d make her name during the next one. Dubbed the ‘Forces Sweetheart’, she gave concerts to service personnel in the likes of Egypt, India and Burma during WW2 when she was a member of ENSA (Entertainments National Service Association) and not without risk to herself incidentally. The songs she’s most associated with are We’ll Meet Again, (There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square and There’ll Always Be an England. Her name, of course, was Dame Vera Lynn.
Vera Margaret Welch was born on 20 March 1917 in East Ham, then of Essex, her birthplace a small apartment in Thackeray Road, named after writer William Makepeace Thackeray, the ‘Vanity Fair’ author. She was the daughter and second child of a plumber, Bertram Welch (1883-1955), and dressmaker, Anne née Martin (1889-1975), who’d married in 1913. In 1919, when she was just two, little Vera was seriously ill with diphtheria and almost died. The infection saw three months’ hospitalisation which understandably made her mother protective, with the young Welch prevented from mixing for some time.
Vera Welch began performing in public aged seven, her debut in a working men’s club, and adopted her maternal grandmother’s maiden name, ‘Lynn’, as her stage name in 1928 when she was eleven. Her first record, with bandmaster Howard Baker, was produced in February 1935, a song entitled It’s Home, and her first radio broadcast followed in the August. Lynn’s first solo recording was in 1936 and during these early days when she was seeking to ‘make it’ Lynn also worked as an admin assistant at a shipping management company. Her TV debut came in a broadcast from Alexandra Palace in 1938. When WW2 commenced in September 1939 Lynn was an up-and-coming dance-band singer but was still some way off becoming a household name, although a song she became synonymous with, We’ll Meet Again, was recorded by her for the first time in ‘39.
It was the war that changed Lynn’s life and elevated her to stardom and national treasure as her songs, delivered with trademark deep voice and sentimental love and longing, helped mould the nation’s mood and spirit of defiance. She was living with her parents at the time though, in a house she’d bought at 24 Upney Lane, Barking. She also bought her first car, an Austin 10, as the rewards of her new-found fame accumulated. It was her radio series meanwhile, ‘Sincerely Yours’, which cemented her fame and fortune, a show connecting loved ones left behind with forces personnel at the front. Vera married musician Harry Lewis in 1941, a liaison lasting well over half-a-century until his death in 1998 with Lewis abandoning his own career to concentrate on his wife’s; he’d become her manager by 1950. Apparently he answered the phone with: ‘What do you want her for?’ I think that’s known as cutting to the chase. They had one child, Virginia, in March 1946. By war’s end the working-class gal from East Ham was a star, an exemplar of wartime spirit, her celebrity status almost matching the PM, Winston Churchill. One of Lynn’s mates, the actor, singer and comedian Harry Secombe joked: ‘Churchill didn’t beat the Nazis. Vera sang them to death’. Lynn also appeared in three wartime films: We’ll Meet Again, Rhythm Serenade and One Exciting Night.
Lynn’s popularity may have peaked during the war but it certainly didn’t end as she continued appearing on radio and TV and churning out hits like Auf Wiederseh’n, Sweetheart (1952) and the UK No.1 single My Son, My Son (1954). The former appeared in the first ever UK Singles Chart on 14 November 1952, was one of three Vera Lynn songs to appear in that inaugural Top 10, also topped the American charts, making Lynn the first UK artist to achieve this feat, and later inspired the title of a 1980s sitcom, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. When commercial broadcasting commenced in 1955 Lynn was given her first TV series and she went on to release over 20 original albums during her career.
Whilst she continued performing as variety artist and recording star, her connection with WW2 never weakened, the wartime generation ensuring that her personal ‘finest hour’ continued to define her identity and reputation. She was honoured with an OBE in 1969 and her Damehood followed in 1975. Vera Lynn’s last single, I Love This Land, was brought out to mark the end of the Falklands War in 1982. In 2000, as another millennium dawned, she was named the Brit who best typified 20th century spirit and she continued honouring that legacy by appearing and performing at wartime commemorations.
Vera Lynn should have gained awards for longevity, not only for becoming a centenarian but also for a singing career lasting almost as long (1924-2020). Aged 92 in 2009, she became the oldest living artist to top the UK Albums Chart with a compilation recording, We’ll Meet Again; The Very Best of Dame Vera Lynn. She was made a Companion of Honour in 2016, then in 2017, by now a centenarian, she released Vera Lynn 100, another compilation to celebrate her 100 years. It peaked at No.3 in the chart, which made Lynn the first centenarian with a Top Ten album.
Dame Vera Lynn died on 18 June 2020, aged 103, and was afforded a military funeral. Lynn had continued to devote much time to charity work including relating to ex-servicemen, such as veterans of her beloved 14th Army, the so-called ‘Forgotten Army’, who’d fought in Burma. She continued to be held in high regard by WW2 veterans for whom she’d represented a beacon of hope in a sometimes bleak and foreboding world. Lynn summed up her relationship with them: ‘It seemed extraordinary that soldiers would come back from the war and write to thank me for what I had done. It made me feel very humble, and that’s why I’ve always done everything I can to thank them back’.
CHRONOLOGY
1917 – Birth of Vera Margaret Welch in East Ham, Essex (20 March).
1928 – Adopts her grandmother’s maiden name as her stage name so becomes Vera Lynn.
1936 – Vera Lynn’s first solo recording but she’s still a long way from being a star.
1939 – Lynn records one of her most famous songs, We’ll Meet Again, for the first time.
1941 – Marries musician Harry Lewis, who becomes her manager.
1954 – Has a UK No. One hit single with My Son, My Son.
1975 – Lynn, already an OBE, becomes Dame Vera Lynn.
2009 – Becomes the oldest living artist to top the UK Albums Chart.
2017 – The first centenarian to record a UK Top Ten album.
2020 – Death of Dame Vera Lynn in Ditchling, East Sussex (18 June) aged 103.
