‘All I actually did was sing’

By Hannah Stephenson

Published:

SHE was the “Forces Sweetheart” who did so much to raise the morale of British troops during the dark days of World War II.

When she sang We’ll Meet Again and The White Cliffs Of Dover, it reminded “our boys” that the country was four-square behind them and that the warm glow of home awaited their return.

But Dame Vera Lynn, now a sprightly 92, is struggling to find a comparison between that wartime era and the current conflict being fought by British soldiers in Afghanistan.

Although she has taken care to avoid controversy and remain apolitical over the years, she recently said that she doesn’t understand why British troops are in Afghanistan, pointing out that, years ago, we would fight for our own country, but now we are involved in other countries’ problems.

Indeed, she finds it hard to compare a war which is being fought in a foreign land to World War II, when bombs were dropping on London, homes were destroyed and people lived for the day.

“The Second World War was at home. Yes, our boys were going away to fight, but we were also fighting here and trying to deal with the problems. Everyone was coping with what we had,” she says.

“When wars are away from your own country, naturally, although your boys are over there, if you haven’t actually got anybody out there fighting who’s close to you, you don’t feel it so much.”

Today, Dame Vera has long since given up singing – she performed publicly for the last time at the 1995 VE Day celebrations – but she is still very much in demand and her memory is as sharp as a knife.

She may have retired from singing, but not a week goes by when she isn’t asked to cut a ribbon, attend a charity event – she is president of the Dame Vera Lynn Trust for Children with Cerebral Palsy and patron of the Breast Cancer Research Trust – or go to a veterans’ anniversary.

She has also brought out her revised and reissued memoir, Some Sunny Day, ahead of the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II next month.

A quiet retirement in the Sussex Downs, where she lives next door to her only daughter, Virginia, simply isn’t on the cards for the plumber’s daughter from East Ham.

While she is deemed a “national treasure” by many, it’s a tag she feels slightly uncomfortable with.

“It’s wonderful to be called something like that, but it’s hard to believe when all I actually did was sing,” she says.

While she recalls the hardships suffered by those at home and abroad during the war, she reflects that people are no happier today.

“In the war, you never knew if you were going to be here the next day. People didn’t dwell on that. They just kept going.

“People were happier because there was so little to have and they were willing to share what there was. What you never had you never missed. Today, the material things are there for people to have. The more they have, the more they want.”

In the 1970s, Dame Vera decided to discreetly bow out and retire quietly, just fading from the limelight, although she continued to do benefit shows for charity.

She says she doesn’t miss singing per se, but she does miss the expression and emotions it brought.

“When you sing, you are using your emotions and are singing words you wouldn’t normally say to people. It was a contact with people. That’s what I missed when I gave it up – feeling close to people. It’s like writing a love letter to someone.”

Some Sunny Day, by Dame Vera Lynn, is published by HarperCollins, priced £18.99.