Lynn, Dame Vera

Lynn, Dame Vera (1917- ), professional name of Dame Vera Margaret Lewis, born Vera Margaret Welch, British singer. Lynn’s long career began at the age of seven when the young Londoner began singing in working men’s clubs. She joined a dancing troupe at 11, before joining and helping to run a dance school at 15. At 17 she began singing with a local band, appearing for two weeks with the Billy Cotton band. Her first broadcast came in 1935 with bandleader Joe Loss, and she was soon on the air again with Charlie Kunz, making her first recording with him: “I’m in the Mood for Love”. In 1941 she went solo and appeared in a revue, Apple Sauce, at the London Palladium, and in a radio series for servicemen called Sincerely Yours. The troops adored her, and she soared to stardom with songs like “We’ll Meet Again” (1939) and “The White Cliffs of Dover” (1942). She became “The Forces’ Sweetheart”, symbolizing all that they loved and missed at home, and she appeared in a number of wartime shows in London, as well as touring the war zones and even going out to Burma in 1944. After the war she returned to the stage with London Laughs in 1952, and began to work on television in the 1950s. She had considerable success in the United States. In 1952 she was the first British female singer to have a No. 1 hit there, “Auf Wiederseh’n, Sweetheart”, and she went on to have her own American radio show. In Britain she starred in several television series, her last top-20 song was “Travellin’ Home” in 1957, and her Family Favourites album was still selling well in the 1980s. Lynn was made a DBE in 1975 and returned to greet the veterans on the 40th and 50th anniversaries of the D-Day landings.