Dame Vera Lynn’s 100th Birthday

East-Ham born dame Vera Lynn is 100 years today. Wartime singer Dame Vera Lynne will be the first singer to release an album at 100-years-old and also marks 93 years in the industry.

Born on 20 March 1917, Vera Welch is the first British artist to ever to have a number one in America in the 1950s up to 2009. To mark the occasion modern day artists and musicians, including Sir Paul McCartney, Barry Humphries and Miriam Margolyes pay tribute to her special voice.

Neither of her parents was in show business – her father Bertram a plumber and mother Anne a dressmaker.