Campaign to construct a £1.5 million memorial in tribute to Dame Vera Lynn

A marketing campaign to fund a sculpture to honour Dame Vera Lynn on the National Arboretum in Staffordshire is being backed by MPs.

Devotees of the late singer, who was dubbed the ‘Forces Sweetheart’, have been attempting to lift £1.5million for a everlasting memorial to her and different wartime entertainers following her loss of life in 2020.

Now plenty of Conservative MPs have expressed their help for the ‘fabulous’ initiative.

Sir Robert Buckland, chairman of the Northern Ireland affairs committee, stated: ‘Very lots of our biggest singers, musicians and entertainers joined our armed providers or supported the conflict effort by visiting our troops and offering an enormous morale increase to tens of millions of our British and Allied combating forces.

‘As an enormous fan of the music and movie of that period, I understand how it helped to outline a technology and it’s actually worthy of correct commemoration.’ 

Dame Vera Lynn, who sang for troopers throughout the Second World War, died in 2020 

Dame Vera Lynn, seen right here in Burma in 1943, might have a sculpture erected of her in Staffordshire

The round sculpture, measuring 10ft in diameter, is being designed by Paul Day, who created the Battle of Britain Memorial

Natalie Elphicke, whose constituency’s ‘White Cliffs’ Dame Vera so unforgettably sang about, stated: ‘She lived a life filled with fantastic expertise mixed with responsibility and repair to our nation and her charities.

‘This sculpture will probably be an inspiration to women and girls for generations to come back.’

The round sculpture, measuring 10ft in diameter, is being designed by Paul Day, who created the Battle of Britain Memorial on London’s Victoria Embankment.

Some £500,000 has been given to date to the marketing campaign, which is being organised by the Dame Vera Lynn Memorial Statue Fund.