Gracie Fields - she was NOT Music Hall and was not popular during the war as she left the UK to its devices and lived overseas

Let's just set the record straight for Gracie Fields, shall we?

She was married to Monty Banks in 1940 - an Italian - after her divorce from Archie Pitt. She had already done work entertaining the troops in Europe from the outbreak of war in '39 - even though she was still ill after a serious operation. On the advice of Churchill, she based herself in America because her husband would have been interned if he had stayed in England - even though he had lived in Britain and worked there for years.

Even though she was formally based in America, she travelled over nearly every theatre of war, in the middle of campaigns and fighting, to entertain the troops at her own expense. This was not generally known by the press, who vilified her even when she returned to England to entertain in factories and army camps. At the instigation of Churchill - in public in the House of Commons, the press was told to lay off her and Parliament issued a public apology to her.