Military Wives Sing At Sandhhurst

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The Military Wives Sing At Sandhurst.
NEWS that the single by the Military Wives' Choir is now officially bookies' favourite to become Christmas number one is music to the ears of its members -- including Dorset's own Emma Williams.

Wherever You Are is not released until December 19, but it is already leading online music sales on Amazon, ahead of acts such as Coldplay and Adele.
A percentage of the sales will go to two military charities, the Royal British Legion and SSAFA.

The women, whose husbands were serving in Afghanistan, rose to fame after appearing in the latest BBC series of The Choir. The programme followed their progress as Bournemouth-educated musician Gareth Malone expertly guided them towards performing at the Festival of Remembrance in the Albert Hall.

The song was composed using words from letters and poems the women and their husbands had exchanged while apart.

Emma, 33, from Ferndown, first met her husband Gavin when he was based at the West Moors fuel depot. He is a staff sergeant in the Royal Logistics Corps who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

After being posted to the tri-service base at Chivenor in North Devon, 33-year-old Emma -- who has a seven-year-old son, Ben, and a four-year-old daughter, Lucy -- admitted she was unhappy.

"I found it really hard. I'm Bournemouth through and through and I'd had my family and friends around me. Eighteen months in, I was still struggling to detach from Bournemouth.

"There were flyers going up about The Choir. I hadn't made many friends, but a couple of the girls said 'I'll go if you go'.

"It was the best thing I have ever done in my life."

She added: "We were petrified that we might have to sing on our own and that Gareth would only pick the good ones. At the first rehearsal, we sang the Grand Old Duke of York. Part of his plan was to get rid of all the inhibitions and see if we could go on from there.

"As a military wife, when you give up your career, you lose a little bit of your own identity. The Choir gave us confidence in our singing and personally. It's been a tonic."

Emma, who went to school in Broadstone and Ferndown Upper, bonded with Gareth at an early stage, sharing stories of their younger days in the Bournemouth area.

"He's absolutely lovely and so easy to talk to; a miracle worker," she said.

Rehearsals started last March, but the women had no idea of the final goal.

"We had performances in a local pannier market and thought that was as big as it was going to get," recalled Emma.

"When we sang at Sandhurst, that was immense. Then Gareth dropped the bombshell that we were going to sing at the Albert Hall. To us that felt so important.

"I hope we have reached out to other military wives and got them thinking: 'If they can do it, perhaps we can'. Singing can get you through some of the toughest times of your life."

The Chivenor choir is still rehearsing and has been invited to perform at various local festivals and events, but its fame has also led to the women being interviewed by national newspapers and television shows.

But what do the husbands think?

"Military men are quite hard and don't show much emotion, but they've all been reduced to tears at some point through pride and disbelief," said Emma.

"When the men are away, you worry constantly. That's why The Choir helped so much. It made you go out rather than sit by the telephone. I now have a tight-knit group of friends for life. We're each other's support network