Vera Lynn, "The Forces' Sweetheart"

Vera Lynn, born Vera Margaret Welch on 20 March, 1917 in East Ham, London, began singing at the age of seven. Later she adopted her grandmother's maiden name Lynn as her stage name. Her career flourished during World War II, when she was nicknamed "The Forces' Sweetheart".

In 1940 she began her own radio series, "Sincerely Yours", sending messages to British troops and performing the songs most requested to her by soldiers stationed abroad. She went into hospitals to interview new mothers and send messages to their husbands overseas. She toured Burma and gave outdoor concerts for soldiers.

Vera Lynn is best known for the songs "We'll Meet Again" and "The White Cliffs of Dover". Her life and work has been celebrated by many people in many different ways. Pink Floyd wrote a song called Vera for their 1979 album The Wall; in the film based on the album, a Christmas song The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot by Vera Lynn is played over the opening credits. Pink Floyd also recorded a live version of The Wall called Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81, where before the concert starts, Vera Lynn's We'll Meet Again can be heard in the background. Vera recorded the song Don't You Remember When in 1975, featuring tambourine by ex-Beatle Ringo Starr. In the film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love the Bomb, her song We'll Meet again , with visual effects of nuclear explosions, is the closing title.

Vera Lynn has written two autobiographies. Vocal Refrain in 1970, and We'll Meet Again in the early 1990s. Now aged 93 years, she is one of the last surviving major entertainers of the Second World War years.