I am so excited to share with you some photos of my recent meeting with Dame Vera Lynn in Piccadilly last week 25th August 2009. I wanted to meet her as her voice and songs have not only been a huge inspiration to my 96 year old Grandma Dorothy Carr’s generation who had to live through those difficult and unsettling WW2 years but also have become an inspiration for current generations. I wanted Dame Vera to be one of the first people to receive a copy of my  yet unreleased third album ‘Coquette’ and point her to my song ‘The White Cliffs’ which was directly inspired by her song ‘We’ll meet again.’


Dame Vera Lynn was signing copies of her autobiography, ‘Some Sunny Day’ at Hatchards in Piccadilly. I managed to meet Dame Vera for a few moments before she made her way to the media area. This national treasure is over ninety years old now, and shot to fame in World War II when her songs helped the Brits defeat the Nazis.
I have to say a huge thankyou to the Dame Vera Lynn Trust and to Tom and Virginia Jones for making this meeting possible.
A little history about Dame Vera Lynn for those of you who do not know much about her….
Dame Vera Lynn, DBE (born 20 March 1917) is a British vocalist whose career flourished during World War II, when she was nicknamed “The Forces’ Sweetheart“. Among her popular songs are “We’ll Meet Again” and “The White Cliffs of Dover“. She is considered one of the major Allied entertainers of World War II. On 30 August 2009, Dame Vera became the oldest living artist to make it into the UK Top 20 album chart, at the age of 92. Her collection We’ll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn entered the chart at number 20.

for lyrics to ‘We’ll meet again’ visit  HERE!!!!
I wanted Dame Vera to be one of the first people to receive copy of my latest album ‘Coquette’ which is to be released on 9th November 2009.
It meant so much that Dame Vera accepted a copy and that I had a chance to tell her about the various songs on the album that were inspired by various events in WW2.

I told her about my songs….
‘Kommander’s Car’ and of my recent visit to Mr. Piechowski in Poland whose remarkable escape from Auschwitz on 20th June 1942 had been the source of inspiration for my song. I told her about my song Army which details the evils and destruction of wartime.
‘The White Cliffs’ which had been directly inspired by her song, ‘We’ll meet again.’ I sing the lyric in the outro chorus ‘we’ll meet again don’t know where don’t know when but I know we’ll meet again, some sunny some sunny day.’

I asked Dame Vera if she is still singing and she told me that she gave up 2 years ago because ‘you have to know when to let the voice finally rest.’
It was a great pleasure for me to ask if Dame Vera would be so kind as to sign my red ukulele. I promised that I would use it to play at a concert for the Dame Vera Lynn Trust in the near future.





Here is my signed red ukulele and me holding it very proudly outside Hatchards. I am so honoured to have had the opportunity to meet Dame Vera Lynn and I will cherish this memory forever. Big thanks to Mel Gareh my lovely friend for taking such lovely snapshots and for capturing these special moments for me…
We’ll meet again Dame Vera!