AN ICONIC wartime singer who launched her career in Southend is turning 100 and will cement her place in history today as the oldest person to release an album.

Dame Vera Lynn, known across the nation as the “Forces Sweetheart”, for her uplifting performances during the Second World War sees her album, entitled Vera Lynn 100, go on sale – three days before her 100th birthday on Monday.

Dame Vera launched her career at the Kursaal Ballroom in Southend where she performed with the Howard Baker Band in 1939, aged just 22.

The Kursaal, now a Grade II listed building, was one of the finest venues in Europe at the time and hosted all manner of musical artists following its opening in 1901. The Howard Baker Band were the resident band until 1967.

Now Dame Vera is joined by chart-topping British singers on her new compilation album, the 23rd of her career, including Alfie Boe, Alexander Armstrong and Aled Jones.

It is not her first time in the record books either as Dame Vera became the oldest person to have a UK number 1 album in 2009 with We’ll Meet Again.

Dame Vera said: “It’s truly humbling that people still enjoy these songs from so many years ago, reliving the emotions of that time – I was after all just doing my job as a singer – and it’s so wonderful for me to hear my songs again so beautifully presented in a completely new way.”

To accompany the release of her new album, Dame Vera has also organised a musical extravaganza at the London Palladium tomorrow night.

The concert will showcase some of the best of British talent and will raise money for the Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity, which helps supports children suffering with cerebral palsy and other motor learning difficulties.

She promised viewers that the show would give a “tiny insight” into her near century-long career.

Dame Vera said: “To have reached my hundredth year is in itself an achievement – with all the many memories that one collects over the years.

“The different places and the wonderful people one meets and the many, many fans from across the world who have supported me.

“The show will be but a tiny insight into my career from when I started on stage at the age of seven, through the war years right up until the current day… so sit back and enjoy what for me has been an incredible adventure of song, dance and friendship.”

Born on March 20, 1917 in East Ham, Vera was singing in public before her eighth birthday, and would impress the crowds with rousing renditions of classics.

Historians have noted how at the age of 22, just before she shot to fame during the Second World War, she performed at the Kursaal Ballroom. Historian,and author of The Secret History of Southend, Dee Gordon said: “She performed here in 1939 with the Howard Baker Band who regularly performed at the Kursaal.”

In historian Simon Webb’s book A 1960s East End Childhood, it also states: “The Kursaal also had one of the finest ballrooms in Europe – where Vera Lynn launched her career.”