Morale boosters

Stars of screen and stage lifted spirits of Allied troops

- BY EMMELINE SAUNDERS

While it stole the lives of millions of soldiers, the war also made stars of citizens who provided much-needed glamour and entertainment for the struggling population.

Working-class girls such as Vera Lynn and Gracie Fields had opportunities that would never have been available to them in peacetime.

And with Allied troops in desperate need of a morale boost, singers and actors had a national duty to keep their spirits up.

To that end, ENSA - the Entertainments National Service Association -was born, organising high-risk tours, flying entertainers into fighting zones in Europe and further afield, staging variety concerts from military bases, that were broadcast across the Empire.

High morale was essential to the war effort. And by the middle of the conflict, the British government was so keen to prevent spirits plummeting and affecting the troops that a special committee was set up by the War Office to keep tabs on morale at home and overseas. One study it commissioned showed that as morale falls, psychological disorders rise, and therefore troops become less effective.

"So morale is really important, and that's recognised from the middle of the war," says historian Tessa Dunlop, author of Lest We Forget: War and Peace in 100 British Monuments. "Anecdotal reports from the war suggest high-quality shows engaged troops on an emotional level, and these shows left a strong and lasting impression. It all helped with lowering combat stress and post-traumatic stress syndrome."

Dame Vera Lynn was perhaps the best known of the talented stars transformed into celebrities by the war. Born to a plumber dad and a dressmaker mum in East Ham, East London, Vera started singing to Londoners sheltering from German bombs inside tube stations, driving herself there in her Austin 10.