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Military Wives
The Military Wives Choirs is a registered charity and network of 70 choirs in British military bases across the UK and overseas, bringing women in the military community closer together through singing. With over 2,000 members, the MWC network is tri-service (Royal Navy, Royal Marines, British Army, Royal Air Force) and any woman with a military connection can join including those currently serving, veterans, mothers, sisters, and daughters, empowering women from across the military community. The organisation was a subsidiary charity of SSAFA until the beginning of 2023 when it became an independent charity whilst still maintaining its close links with SSAFA.
The first choir held their first rehearsal in April 2010 in Catterick Garrison. It was the idea of two Scots Guards wives (Nicky Clarke and Caroline Jopp) who decided, whilst their husbands were deployed in Afghanistan in 2009, to put up posters at the Garrison to actively encourage and look for women interested in singing together, to help support and give the wives a focus whilst their husbands were deployed. They engaged a well-known local music teacher and set about putting together a choir made up of wives, girlfriends, and servicewomen and so the first choir was formed. A letter was written to choirmaster Gareth Malone looking for help and support with the choir. At that time, he was receiving acclaim for his BBC television programme, The Choir, and felt that this was an idea that could be replicated. Malone then went to RMB Chivenor to start another choir there.
Following the success at Chivenor, Malone, as part of the series, formed another choir at the Royal Citadel, Plymouth. Following the broadcast of the series and the release of the single Wherever You Are, more choirs were added at CTCRM, Lympstone and HMNB Portsmouth. The five choirs of Catterick, Chivenor, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Lympstone were invited to contribute to the album In My Dreams under the name Military Wives.
The Military Wives Choir was formed by Gareth Malone at the Royal Marines Base Chivenor, as part of the fourth series of the BBC/Twenty Twenty television series The Choir, entitled The Choir: Military Wives. The choir aimed to help the wives and girlfriends of servicemen currently deployed to Afghanistan express themselves through song.
As the series progressed, Malone led the Chivenor group to perform locally at the nearby town of Barnstaple, and then, alongside the choir formed at the Royal Citadel, Plymouth, at a Passing Out dinner at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Armed Forces Day celebrations in Plymouth. The climax of the television series was their performance of Wherever You Are at The Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on 12 November 2011, in the presence of HM The Queen. The song was created by Paul Mealor from extracts of correspondence between the choir and their spouses in Afghanistan.
Following the series, the song Wherever You Are was released as a single on 19 December 2011, to become the 2011 UK Singles Chart Christmas number one, a feat it achieved when it sold 556,000 copies within a week of launch (more than the rest of the top 12 combined). A section of the cost of the single was donated to the Royal British Legion and the SSAFA Forces Help charities.
The success of the television series and the Christmas single led the five established choirs being approached to contribute to an album. The album, entitled In My Dreams after the lead single, was released in early March 2012, and went to top the album chart in the UK within a week, with £1 from each album sale going towards the Military Wives Choirs Foundation. The foundation has the aim to support the founding of Military Wives' choirs across the UK. Nicky Clarke, co-founder of The Military Wives Choir Foundation, whose original idea and dream to have a choir on every base was gaining momentum, wrote in her note on the album cover, "It is music which gives us strength, hope, courage, support, laughter, and friendship, often when it is most needed".
The choir performed at the opening of the Olympic Stadium in London when ten choirs contributed to the Gary Barlow and Andrew Lloyd Webber single written to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. This single, entitled Sing features voices and instruments from across the Commonwealth and features the Military Wives as the backing track and representing the UK.
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Military Wives
The Military Wives Choirs is a registered charity and network of 70 choirs in British military bases across the UK and overseas, bringing women in the military community closer together through singing. With over 2,000 members, the MWC network is tri-service (Royal Navy, Royal Marines, British Army, Royal Air Force) and any woman with a military connection can join including those currently serving, veterans, mothers, sisters, and daughters, empowering women from across the military community. The organisation was a subsidiary charity of SSAFA until the beginning of 2023 when it became an independent charity whilst still maintaining its close links with SSAFA.
The first choir held their first rehearsal in April 2010 in Catterick Garrison. It was the idea of two Scots Guards wives (Nicky Clarke and Caroline Jopp) who decided, whilst their husbands were deployed in Afghanistan in 2009, to put up posters at the Garrison to actively encourage and look for women interested in singing together, to help support and give the wives a focus whilst their husbands were deployed. They engaged a well-known local music teacher and set about putting together a choir made up of wives, girlfriends, and servicewomen and so the first choir was formed. A letter was written to choirmaster Gareth Malone looking for help and support with the choir. At that time, he was receiving acclaim for his BBC television programme, The Choir, and felt that this was an idea that could be replicated. Malone then went to RMB Chivenor to start another choir there.
Following the success at Chivenor, Malone, as part of the series, formed another choir at the Royal Citadel, Plymouth. Following the broadcast of the series and the release of the single Wherever You Are, more choirs were added at CTCRM, Lympstone and HMNB Portsmouth. The five choirs of Catterick, Chivenor, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Lympstone were invited to contribute to the album In My Dreams under the name Military Wives.
The Military Wives Choir was formed by Gareth Malone at the Royal Marines Base Chivenor, as part of the fourth series of the BBC/Twenty Twenty television series The Choir, entitled The Choir: Military Wives. The choir aimed to help the wives and girlfriends of servicemen currently deployed to Afghanistan express themselves through song.
As the series progressed, Malone led the Chivenor group to perform locally at the nearby town of Barnstaple, and then, alongside the choir formed at the Royal Citadel, Plymouth, at a Passing Out dinner at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Armed Forces Day celebrations in Plymouth. The climax of the television series was their performance of Wherever You Are at The Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on 12 November 2011, in the presence of HM The Queen. The song was created by Paul Mealor from extracts of correspondence between the choir and their spouses in Afghanistan.
Following the series, the song Wherever You Are was released as a single on 19 December 2011, to become the 2011 UK Singles Chart Christmas number one, a feat it achieved when it sold 556,000 copies within a week of launch (more than the rest of the top 12 combined). A section of the cost of the single was donated to the Royal British Legion and the SSAFA Forces Help charities.
The success of the television series and the Christmas single led the five established choirs being approached to contribute to an album. The album, entitled In My Dreams after the lead single, was released in early March 2012, and went to top the album chart in the UK within a week, with £1 from each album sale going towards the Military Wives Choirs Foundation. The foundation has the aim to support the founding of Military Wives' choirs across the UK. Nicky Clarke, co-founder of The Military Wives Choir Foundation, whose original idea and dream to have a choir on every base was gaining momentum, wrote in her note on the album cover, "It is music which gives us strength, hope, courage, support, laughter, and friendship, often when it is most needed".
The choir performed at the opening of the Olympic Stadium in London when ten choirs contributed to the Gary Barlow and Andrew Lloyd Webber single written to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. This single, entitled Sing features voices and instruments from across the Commonwealth and features the Military Wives as the backing track and representing the UK.
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