Dame Vera Lynn will be commemorated with a memorial sculpture on the white cliffs of Dover, the site referenced in one of her most famous wartime songs.
Lynn, who died last year aged 103, helped to raise morale among troops during the second world war with hits including We’ll Meet Again and The White Cliffs of Dover.
The memorial, announced by her family and understood to have support from Dover council, will cost about £1.5m and crowdfunding is set to begin next week.
The Southend MP Sir David Amess, a friend of Lynn’s family who is spearheading the campaign, said the sculpture would be created by Paul Day. Amess said an exhibition centre had also been suggested.
A promotional video for the memorial, due to be launched next week, will include contributions from Katherine Jenkins and Sir Paul McCartney.
“A lot of people don’t know what she did,” Amess said. “She came from an ordinary background like myself in the East End of London. She had tough times and hard times and she was always down to earth, never grand and always kind and generous.
“These days many celebrities are grand and remote but Vera was never like that. And she never forgot the sacrifices made by the troops in the second world war.”
More recently, Lynn spread messages of hope during the coronavirus pandemic. As the UK entered lockdown last year, she compared the challenges ahead to the “darkest of times” in the war. On her birthday in March and on VE Day in May, she quoted from her wartime classic to remind Britons “we will meet again”. The phrase was also referenced by the Queen in a televised address in April.
Following news of Lynn’s death in June, Boris Johnson praised her as a “truly great Briton”, and members of the royal family sent private condolences.
