‘We’ll Meet Again’ singer Vera Lynn, who boosted British morale during WWII, has died

Dame Vera Lynn, the British singer whose melancholy performance of “We’ll Meet Again” put a brave face on the overwhelming sadness of World War II, died on Thursday, according to a statement from her family.

She was 103.

“The family are deeply saddened to announce the passing of one of Britain’s best-loved entertainers at the age of 103,” said the statement, as reported by the Press Association, a British news agency.

“Dame Vera Lynn, who lived in Ditchling, East Sussex, passed away earlier today, 18 June 2020, surrounded by her close family.”

Lynn died as one of her era’s last surviving acting and singing stars, having established herself as an icon of Great Britain’s greatest generation, which successfully defended Europe against fascist forces of Germany and Italy.

Known as “the Forces’ Sweetheart” for her World War II performances, Lynn scored hits with with “We’ll Meet Again,” “The White Cliffs of Dover,” “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” and “There’ll Always Be an England.”

“We’ll Meet Again,” composed in 1939 by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles, captured the terribly sad moments when countless Allied servicemen marched off to war and optimistically vowed to come home — all while knowing those odds were shaky at best.

The lyrics included the well-known lines: “We’ll meet again. Don’t know where. Don’t know when. But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day.”

“‘We’ll Meet Again’ had the words, it was optimistic. It said we will meet again, all this trouble will be over and we’ll all be nice and happy and home back once more,” Lynn said in an interview with the Imperial War Museum in 1988.

“These were the songs that helped them to think of home, helped to go on fighting, that they were fighting for something that meant something to them and to everybody else and their loves ones and families. And it gave them hope and it gave them courage to go on doing what they had to do at that time.”

Lynn said she carefully picked the songs she performed during World War II, knowing the fans listening were either servicemen or loved ones of those in harm’s way.

“It wasn’t just important that it had to be a song that I liked and thought I could sing it well, but it had to mean something to those that were listening,” Lynn told the museum.

Michael D. Langan, writing as the culture critic for Fort Myers NBC affiliate WBBH, said the lyrics “We’ll Meet Again” give hope to anyone facing their own, or a loved one’s demise.

“The song will bring tears to your eyes,” Langan wrote in 2019. “Don’t know know where, don’t know when, but it will happen. That’s enough for me. “

When Lynn turned 100, a 350-foot-tall image of her face was projected onto Cliffs of Dover in honor of that song and the powerful symbolism of that British landmark.

“As we look to the white cliffs on Monday, I will be thinking of all our brave boys — the cliffs were the last thing they saw before heading off to war and, for those fortunate enough to return, the first thing they saw upon returning home,” Lynn said just ahead of her 100th birthday in March 2017.

“I feel so blessed to have reached this milestone and I can’t think of a more meaningful way to mark the occasion.”