Dame Vera Lynn; why she was the best of British – Yorkshire Post Letters

I, ALONG with millions, were astounded with sadness at the announcement of the death of our national treasure Dame Vera Lynn at the age of 103 (The Yorkshire Post, June 19).

I immediately calculated she was born in 1917, the same year as my father, a member of the wartime RAF.

I was born in 1942, the middle of the Second World War. My parents were in their 20s when Vera Lynn sang her iconic songs.

In later years I recall my father, singing, humming, whistling those much-loved famous tunes. Incidentally my own mother was also called Vera, so I have always felt a family connection.

Vera Lynn’s death makes me feel like the final closure of the last World War, she was one of the final surviving well-known members of that historical age of the 1940s. Perhaps only surpassed by The Queen.

I wish to thank The Yorkshire Post for the wonderful obituary of Dame Vera’s life supported by reports from Windsor Castle, the village of Ditching, the Royal British Legion, and her daughter Virginia Lewis-Jones regarding her mother’s charity work and support.

I am a widower of many years. My Christian faith encourages me to believe I will meet again the spirit of my dear departed darling wife.

From: Terry Palmer, South Lea Avenue, Hoyland, Barnsley.

DAME Vera Lynn, a true British patriot. Deserves every honour we can give her. A state funeral wouldn’t go amiss. We give awards away like confetti – knighthoods to Bob Geldof and Bono, for doing what?

We now live in a snowflake environment where the ‘gimme’ society are rewarded for under achieving and incompetence.

These people given awards for becoming millionaires are a total disgrace. God bless Dame Vera, we may never see her like again.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

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Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor