Wake, Nancy Grace Augusta (1912 - )

Nancy Wake, whom the Gestapo code-named "the White Mouse" was the Allies' most decorated servicewoman of World War II. The youngest of six children, Nancy Wake came to Australia with her parents when she was 20 months old. In the early 1930s she went first to England and then Paris as a freelance journalist and there met and married Henri Fiocca, a wealthy French industrialist. When the French government surrendered, after the German Army invaded in May 1940, Nancy Wake joined the French Resistance working as a courier and saboteur. For these 'special operations in France' Wake was awarded the George Medal (17 July 1945). Wake worked for the Intelligence Department at the British Air Ministry, after the war. She married John Forward, in 1957, before returning to Australia to live. In December 2001, Nancy Wake left Port Macquarie NSW to live in Europe.

On 22 February 2004 Nancy Wake was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia. The award recognises the significant contribution and commitment of Nancy Wake, stemming from her outstanding actions in wartime, in encouraging community appreciation and understanding of the past sacrifices made by Australian men and women in times of conflict, and to a lasting legacy of peace.

• Forward, Nancy (married name)

Chronology

30 August 1912	Born: daughter of C A Wake
1936 - 1939	Freelance journalist Europe
1939	married Henri Fiocca (dec. 1943)
1940 - 1943	Member Allied Escape Route Organisation Occupied France
1943 - 1945	Captain FANY
1946 - 1948	Executive Officer British Foreign Office attached to Embassies Paris and Prague
1952 - 1958	WRAF officer Air Ministry London (Intelligence)
1957	married John Forward (dec. 1997)
1985	Author of The White Mouse
1988	Officer Legion d'Honneur (Chevalier 1970)
2001	Left Australia to live in London
22 February 2004 -	Appointed Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia.

Books

• Braddon, Russell, Nancy Wake: The Story of a Very Brave Woman, Quality Book Club, London, 1956, 287 pp. [ Details... ]
• Braddon, Russell, Nancy Wake, Pan Books, London; Sydney, 1958, 223 pp. [ Details... ]
• Braddon, Russell, Woman in Arms: The Story of Nancy Wake, Collins, London, 1963, 192 pp. [ Details... ]
• FitzSimons, Peter, Nancy Wake: A Biography of Our Greatest War Heroine, Harper Collins, Pymble, NSW, 2001, 310 pp. [ Details... ]
• Wake, Nancy, The Autobiography of the Woman the Gestapo Called the White Mouse, Macmillan, South Melbourne, 1985, 206 pp. [ Details... ]

Newspaper Articles

• 'Wartime spy honour', Herald Sun, 23 February 2004, p. 3. [ Details... ]
• Mulvey, Paul, 'Wartime comrades watch as White Mouse is honoured', The Age, News, 3 March 2004, p. 10. [ Details... ]
• Nicholson, Brendan, 'White Mouse finally gets her gong', The Age, 23 February 2004, p. 1. [ Details... ]
• Riley, Robyn, 'Timely Wake-up call', Sunday Herald Sun, 7 March 2004, p. 27. [ Details... ]

See also

• Escott, Beryl E, Twentieth-Century women of courage, Sutton Publishing, Gloucestershire (UK), 1999, 282 pp. [ Details... ]
• Herd, Margaret (ed.), Who's who in Australia 2002, 38 edn, Crown Content, Melbourne, 2002, 2020 pp. [ Details... ]