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American Medal of Freedom Recipient Nancy Wake
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American Medal of Freedom Recipient Nancy Wake
Nancy Wake in Paris, 1932.
Nancy Wake
28 January 2004
French resistance heroine wins Australian government support
SYDNEY: Australian-born Nancy Wake, the wartime French resistance fighter who became her country's most decorated war heroine, is to receive government assistance in recognition of her contribution, Prime Minister John Howard said.
The 91-year-old former secret agent known in wartime France as "the White Mouse" because of her ability to elude capture, resettled in Australia after World War II, but returned to Britain in 2001 to spend the rest of her days among surviving friends there.
While she was living at Port Macquarie north of here a few years ago, she told AFP she loved Australia, but had more friends still alive in Britain and in France and would prefer to live out the rest of her days in Europe. But she had little money left to spend it in much style.
Howard said Wednesday that the government would pay for a carer to take Wake out from the London nursing home where she now lives.
"There's been discussion with her about these arrangements and she is very happy with them," Howard told commercial radio here.
"She will be provided with some additional help and some additional support and comfort in her very advanced years and in special recognition of what a remarkable, courageous and special Australian she was and remains."
Wake grew up in Sydney, then moved to France while in her early 20s to work as a journalist.
While living in Paris she met and fell in love with a handsome, rich French man called Henri Fiocca. "He was a lovely bloke, the love of my life," she often said of the man she married in 1939.
During a visit to Austria in 1933 she said she had been horrified by some of the things she witnessed there, including ill-treatment of the Jews by the Nazis.
Then as the Germans invaded France, she and her husband decided to join the French resistance, helping allied pilots and soldiers flee France.
Her husband was caught and executed by the Nazis and she became one of the Gestapo's most-wanted fugitives.
Then she escaped to Britain where she was properly trained as an agent and parachuted back into France to help undermine the Germans, her famous exploits subsequently becoming the subject of films and books.
With the George Medal, Legion d'honneur, Croix de Guerre, French Resistance Medal and US Medal of Freedom , Wake was by Australia's most decorated servicewoman and the Allied Forces most decorated servicewoman of World War II.
Nancy Wake in London 2003.
Nancy Wake in Australia 2004.
Read Her Story
February 2002
The Prince of Wales meets wartime heroine Nancy Wake at the premiere of the Second World War film Charlotte Gray.
Mrs Wake, 89, who fought with the resistance in France, was one of several women secret agents who inspired the film, based on the novel by Sebastian Faulks.
Living in Paris during the war, Mrs Wake joined the Resistance and later Britain's Special Operations Executive. She worked as a saboteur and was involved in severing German lines of communication on D-Day.
Her French husband, Henri, was captured by the Nazis, who killed him after he refused to disclose her whereabouts.
Now living in London, Mrs Wake - who holds a several medals for her bravery including the George Cross - was one of several members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Fani) group to meet the Prince at the Odeon Leicester Square in London.
His Royal Highness told her: "You were so brave and a great example. It's lovely to meet you."
The Prince also met members of the film's cast, including Cate Blanchett, who plays a member of the Resistance who fights to free her captured lover, an RAF pilot.
Jessie Nobes with her sister Ethel and daughter Nancy Wake.
White Mouse finally gets her gong
By Brendan Nicholson
Canberra
February 23, 2004
Wartime heroine Nancy Wake and Australia have finally made their peace.
Six decades after her daring exploits with the French Resistance in World War II, 91-year-old Ms Wake will receive her homeland's highest honour at a ceremony to be held in London early next month.
Governor-General Michael Jeffery announced yesterday that Ms Wake would be appointed a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia.
A spokesman for the Governor-General said the intention was to make the appointment in the Queen's Birthday honours list in June, but it had been moved forward because Ms Wake was old and frail.
The French twice recognised her courage with their highest medal, awarding her the Croix de Guerre with Star.
The British awarded her the George Medal and the Americans the Medal of Freedom .
But she has not been similarly honoured in Australia.
In 2001, when Ms Wake left Australia for the last time and headed to London, she said she wanted to live out her days where she was appreciated.
She declared her love for Australians, but said she was not interested in being honoured.
"The last time there was a suggestion of that, I told the Government they could stick their medals where the monkey stuck his nuts," she told biographer Peter FitzSimons.
Nevertheless, the spokesman said Ms Wake had accepted the honour.
Ms Wake moved to Australia from New Zealand at age two and considers herself Australian.
As a journalist in Europe in the 1930s, she interviewed Hitler.
She stayed on after the Nazi invasion and helped trapped Allied soldiers, downed airmen and Jews escape to England.
The German Gestapo dubbed her the White Mouse, a recognition of the number of times she escaped their grasp.
She escaped to London, but her French husband, Henri Fiocca, was captured, tortured and killed by the Nazis.
She then joined special operations and in 1944 parachuted into France to help organise the Resistance for the D-Day invasion.
Since returning to London, she had been living in a suite at the Stafford Hotel, where she continued her habit of three large gins, twice a day, before meals.
She sold her medals for $207,000, but the money ran out after a few months and Prince Charles stepped in to help with her expenses.
She had a heart attack a year ago and was moved into the Royal Star and Garter Home for disabled ex-service personnel in Surrey.
The revelation that the most decorated female Allied servicewoman of World War II was broke and relying on friends to pay her bills resulted in Prime Minister John Howard announcing last month that the Government would cover her expenses and pay for a carer.
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Medal History
