The Wives Military

This is Claire’s story, one of four individual journeys taken from Wherever You Are by The Military Wives.Claire Balneaves never thought she’d end up as a military wife. But when she met a young medical assistant, Dave Balneaves, at a naval hospital, everything changed. Before long Claire and Dave had tied the knot and moved into married quarters – and Claire began to settle into the unique life of a military wife. Moving from house to house, from country to country, often solitary – in many...

This is Louise’s story, one of four individual journeys taken from Wherever You Are by The Military Wives.Louise Baines always said she would never marry into the military. She was working behind a bar when Charlie Baines, a submariner, introduced himself – but within a few months they had moved in together, bought a house, and tied the knot.She knew being married to a submariner was never going to be easy, but with young children and a husband absent for months at a time, away from all forms of...

This is Nicky’s story, one of four individual journeys taken from Wherever You Are by The Military Wives.At 33, Nicky Clarke had stopped thinking she would ever fall in love. But they say when you stop looking, love happens – and that was the year she was swept off her feet by Hugo Clarke, a major in the Scots Guards. A year later Hugo and Nicky were married. But life in the military is never calm for long, and the next few years saw Hugo leave for Iraq and Afghanistan for months at a time.In...

This is Paula’s story, one of four individual journeys taken from Wherever You Are by The Military Wives.Paula and James Mundy first met when they were teenagers, little knowing they’d end up spending the rest of their lives together. After James had completed his marine training they met again, became inseparable, and before long had moved into married quarters.But life as a military wife would be particularly hard for Paula. With James posted overseas, she was left to cope with the mental and...

From the moment the Military Wives sang together on BBC Two’s The Choir, their lives changed forever. Their journey entranced the nation, and their story moved millions.In December 2011, as the nation watched, the Military Wives’ single was named Christmas Number 1. A few weeks earlier they had been just regular women living on military bases: the wives and girlfriends of soldiers deployed to Afghanistan.Here the wives tell their individual stories in full for the first time – true stories of...