Remembering Sussex star Dame Vera Lynn

Organisers of a proposed national memorial to Forces’ Sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn would love to think it could be in place this year.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Kewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers, and always

00:06really lovely to speak to Susan Fleet. Now, Susan, you are on a mission, as ever, and

00:11you're hoping the final push to make sure that the memorial to your very, very dear

00:17friend and the nation's sweetheart, the Force's sweetheart, Dame Vera Lynn, is possibly unveiled

00:22in 2025. You need another 500,000, don't you? You're two thirds of the way there, in effect.

00:29Yes, we are, yes.

00:30And why is it so important that this memorial happens, at the risk of asking the obvious?

00:36It's the fact that Dame Vera Lynn did so much for this country. Throughout her whole life

00:41she gave to charities. She didn't just sort of put her name as a patron of charities,

00:46she worked tirelessly for those charities, for her beloved boys, for children with cerebral

00:51palsy, and the list goes on and on and on. You know, her beautiful voice. I remember

00:56when the late Queen spoke to the nation when we were going through the Covid crisis, that

01:03she said, we will meet again, remembering her dear friend, because Vera sang at the

01:09Queen's 16th birthday party at Windsor Castle, and their relationship had gone back such

01:14a long time. She was a remarkable lady, she gave her whole life to others, and then the

01:21music, it lifted the nation during the darkest times.

01:24Absolutely. I remember from the times I spoke to her, there was an incredible warmth about

01:28her, wasn't there?

01:29Oh yes.

01:30Such a lovely, genuine person, wasn't she, of course.

01:31And she had a wonderful sense of humour as well, and she was so gifted. A lot of people

01:36don't realise she was an incredible artist. There were more than 600 paintings, very diverse

01:43styles, but she was really gifted.

01:46And what form will the memorial take?

01:48The memorial is a three metre by three metre tableau. At the back, it's St Paul's during

01:54the Blitz, with a couple standing in front. There's the boys on the left-hand side, the

01:59musicians, the piano, a family sitting around the radiogram with the children and the dog

02:04and the cat, and then Vera centre with a microphone.

02:08Oh, so really capturing something of her. Absolutely. And it's going to go, well there's

02:14nowhere else it could go, is there really? But...

02:17We're hoping Dover, yes. We're sort of in negotiations. We looked at other sites as

02:23well, but we're all hoping it will go to Dover.

02:27And the ideal would be to have it in place by the anniversary of her passing, which would

02:32be June 2025?

02:34Absolutely. That's what we're hoping and having our fingers crossed for, yes.

02:38Fantastic. Well, I will include the website for the Memorial Trust in the published article.

02:43Susan, good luck with this. It's a fabulous thing. Thank you.

02:46Thank you, Phil. Thank you.