Dame Vera hailed at awards ceremony

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The 92-year-old legend accepted the gong before an audience including Sarah Brown, wife of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Fern Britton, Esther Rantzen and Maureen Lipman.

Her album We'll Meet Again - The Very Best of Vera Lynn hit the top spot in the UK album chart last month, meaning she usurped Bob Dylan as the oldest artist to grace the position.

Her album outsold artists including the Arctic Monkeys and Kings of Leon and even defeated the Beatles' much-hyped remastered editions. She received her award at the 54th annual Women of the Year Lunch in London.

"It's lovely to be recognised all those years after the event. But I'm still very proud of the fact that (We'll Meet Again) is a song that has gone around the world," she said.

"What better words can you have when your loved one has gone to war and you leave your family behind?"

Last month Dame Vera urged pop stars to do more to support British troops by entertaining them on the frontline.

She said: "I don't know why it is that they don't do more and I don't think any young stars are writing songs for them either."

Vera started her career singing and dancing in working men's clubs and was already a well established singer by the time the Second World War broke out. Her recordings of We'll Meet Again and White Cliffs Of Dover catapulted her to stardom.

Praising Dame Vera backstage, Rantzen said: "There are so many recent cases of older women being thrown on the scrapheap. I don't think anyone would dare throw (Dame Vera) on the scrapheap."