Life before the war
Nancy was born in New Zealand on August 30, 1912. Her father, a journalist, left the family after he moved them to Sydney. In Sydney, Nancy attended the North Sydney Household Arts School. She ran away when she was 16 and worked as a nurse. Around that time, she inherited some money from an aunt. She used the inheritance to venture to New York City, then London, where she trained herself how to be a journalist.
Eventually, in the 1930s, she settled in Paris working for a local newspaper. During this time, she witnessed the rise of Adolf Hitler and "saw roving Nazi gangs randomly beating Jewish men and women in the streets.” Nancy resolved to do something if the opportunity ever arose.
Wake in 1949, the year she first ran as a Liberal Party candidate.
Life during WWII
Wake and her husband
Henri Fiocca.
Nancy married Henri Edmond Fiocca, a wealthy French industrialist. They were living in Marseille, France when Germany invaded. After the fall of France, Nancy became a courier for the French Resistance and her social standing and wealth allowed her to travel inconspicuously. The German military began calling her The White Mouse because of her ability to elude capture. She served as a courier and began to escort Allied soldiers and refugees out of the country. She became the Gestapo's most wanted person.
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When occupation authorities became aware of her activities, she fled France and left behind her husband Henri. He was later arrested and executed. She made her way to England where she trained as a British Special Operations Executive, an intelligence group working with the French Resistance.
When she was 31, she parachuted into France to help with preparations for D-Day. She established wireless communication with the British military that was deemed crucial to weakening German strength in advance of the Allied invasion. She collected supply drops in the night full of weapons and ammunition and stored them in caches for the advancing Allies.
Life after WWII
She was given the George Medal, Britain’s second-highest civilian honor, and the Medal of Freedom, the United States’ second-highest. France gave her the Legion d’Honneur, the highest military honor it bestows.
Wake showing her service medals that make her WWII's most decorated female.
She worked briefly for the British government, then returned to Australia and ran unsuccessfully for public office in the early 1950s. She married a retired Royal Air Force pilot, John Forward, in 1957. He died in 1997.
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Nancy settled in London and passed away in 2011 at 98 years old.
