Dame Vera Lynn: Flypast to honour Forces' Sweetheart

The singer performed hits such as We'll Meet Again to troops on the front line

A flypast will honour Dame Vera Lynn when her funeral is held in Sussex later this week, it has been announced.

Dame Vera, the Forces' Sweetheart whose songs helped to raise morale in World War Two, died last month aged 103.

Her family will hold a private funeral service on Friday.

A cortege bearing her body will pause in Ditchling, where she lived, to allow residents to pay their respects; and a Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flypast will go over the village.

A spokeswoman for the family said the cortege would leave the family home at 11:40 BST and the flypast, consisting of a Spitfire and a Hurricane, would take place at noon.

Dame Vera will be taken to Woodvale Crematorium in Brighton where servicemen and women will line the route outside the chapel, with a military bearer party to receive the coffin.

Vera Lynn and troops in 1942

A bugler from the Royal Marines will provide music inside the chapel.

The service will be attended by a senior officer from the Ministry of Defence, the bugler, and a small family group.

The family said a full memorial service would be held at a later date.

The singer was best known for performing hits such as We'll Meet Again to troops on the front line.

Dame Vera, who had sold more than a million records by the age of 22, was also remembered for singing The White Cliffs Of Dover, There'll Always Be An England, I'll Be Seeing You, Wishing and If Only I Had Wings.

The Queen echoed her WW2 anthem during a speech to Britons who were separated from families and friends during the coronavirus lockdown in April, telling the nation: "We will be with our friends again, we will be with our families again, we will meet again."