Dame Vera Lynn's enduring marriage to husband Harry, who she thought of every night after his death

Dame Vera Lynn has sadly died at the age of 103, 22 years after the passing of her beloved husband Harry Lewis.

The singer may have been renowned as the ‘forces sweetheart’ during the Second World War, but outside of the limelight she was happily married to her musician husband for 57 years.

Lewis died in 1998, with Lynn giving a touching insight into the relationship in 2019 when she shared that she still thought of him before going to sleep each night.

Read more: Tributes pour in for Dame Vera Lynn

"I still miss him, even after all these years,” she told The Mirror. “I look around at all the mementoes of my life dotted around the room; the pictures of my late husband, Harry – and it all comes flooding back.

"I remember our simple, 1941, wartime wedding, the way my lipstick ran in the tropical heat.”

Lynn wed Lewis, a clarinetist and saxophonist, in 1941 before the couple went on to have one child, daughter Virginia, in 1946.

In her later years, Lynn said she believed her husband "rather liked" her status as a forces' pin-up.

"He never said anything about it. Don't think he was jealous. He used to see to all the music and the arrangements, so him being in the business was a great help. He understood about all the late nights and the travelling," she shared with The Telegraph.

The London-born star performed to troops in countries including Egypt, India and Burma during the conflict.

After the war, she continued to release music across the decades before retiring in the early 90s. Last month, she became the oldest person to get a top 40 album in the UK charts when her greatest hits album re-entered at number 30.

Lynn's passing was confirmed on Thursday. Her family said in a statement they were “deeply saddened to announce the passing of one of Britain’s best-loved entertainers at the age of 103”.

They added: “Dame Vera Lynn, who lived in Ditchling, East Sussex, passed away earlier today, 18 June 2020, surrounded by her close family."