There’s more to life in the military than you might think.
One of the less well publicised aspects of a career in the armed forces is the constant moving around it may involve.
That is where a military choir really can come into its own…a lifeline for women who have had to move around a lot from base to base with their partners.
It is, of course, a wonderful outlet for those with a bent for singing. But there’s so much more to membership of a military choir and the emotional support it provides is one often-overlooked and underestimated dimension.
The Belgium Military Wives Choir was set up over ten years ago, in 2014, and is one of the largest choirs in the overseas network, with more than 30 members.
Emma Porter Davis, who is responsible for publicity for the Belgium choir, sums it up by saying, “The purpose of the choirs is to give these women a safe and familiar place.”
Several members of the choir are members of the Royal British Legion and the choir performs throughout the year, including a big upcoming date for the Brussels branch of the RBL: the Act of Remembrance ceremony in Evere on the outskirts of Brussels on 20 June.
This is the RBL’s Allied commemoration at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery (Brussels Town Cemetery).
The cemetery is the final resting place for war dead from the UK, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland and South Africa. The event starts at 11.30am and includes music from the choir.
The choir also sing later in the year at the RBL’s Remembrance Sunday service at Heverlee.
Last year, they sang at the Menin Gate at Ypres during the Last Post ceremony and will go back there again to sing on October 10.
For this event, it has joined forces with the Brunssum Military Wives Choir, “a really lovely example,” says Emma, “of how choirs come together.”
Aside from some magical music, one of the most interesting elements of the choir is its “social” role.
Some military families move regularly to a new posting, while for others deployments mean long periods of separation. Many members join a new choir when they are posted, enabling them to become part of a familiar community built, says Emma, “on the joy of singing.”
Emma explains further, “We meet once a week in Brussels for rehearsals and we also organise lots of social events. The choir can be really a lifeline for women who have had to move around a lot from base to base with their partners. We have some ladies who have been members of as many as five choirs.
“The choir is enormously comforting for women who have to uproot their families for their partner’s job or their own job (in the case of serving military ladies) to move far away and start all over again and again and again.
“The purpose of the choirs is to give these women a safe and familiar place. Our anthem ‘Stronger Together’ starts out with the line, “There are times when I need somewhere that I belong, something that I can call my own, like I have always known. Safe, secure and feels like home.”
The choir sings from the same repertoire as all the other Military Wives Choirs in the network but there are some songs which are especially composed for them.
A firm favourite of many of its choir members is ‘The Poppy Red’ which is a Remembrance song and includes the lyrics:
“In Flanders Fields, to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw.
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With all who died.”
There are also a series of songs which are arranged for its network and these include hymns such as ‘Abide With Me’ and pop songs like ‘Rolling in the Deep’and show tunes such as a medley of the main songs from Les Miserables and ‘For Good’ which comes from the musical Wicked.
They also sometimes sing songs from other sources, for example, the choir sang Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere at a recent concert.
The choir sings every year at the Royal British
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