Nancy Wake (deceased)

The most decorated servicewoman of WW2, Nancy(Codename- Helene) organised an escape route over the Pyrenees before she was forced to use it herself. Following training with SOE, she returned to France to organise her own Resistance Group in the Auvergne. Involved in many dangerous subversive missions, she won the everlasting respect of 3500 members of her Maquis. November 1939 - Wake married Henri Fiocca, a French businessman. 1940 - 1942 - Nancy Wake and Henri Fiocca joined the French Resistance. Nancy Wake worked manning the dangerous escape routes through France helping to save the lives of many Allied troops and Jewish refugees. She was given her code name 'The White Mouse' by the Gestapo. 1943 - Wake became one of the Gestapos most wanted resistance leaders and Wake was forced to flee France. June 1943 - Wake arrived in England where after convincing the British Government to train her as a professional spy she began work in the French Section of the Special Operations Executive. August 1943 - Henri Fiocca was killed by the Gestapo, a fact Nancy did not discover until the liberation of france from the German invasion. April 1944 - Wake and another member of the Special Operations Executive were parachuted into the Auvergne region in central France where they worked to distribute weapons among the resistance fighters in hiding in the mountains before D-Day. September 1944 - Wake left the Resistance and went to Special Operations Executive Headquarters in Paris. October 1944 - Went to Special Operations Executive Headquarters in London. 17th July 1945 - Awarded George Medal (GM). 1949 - Wake later returned to England where she married John Forward a RAF officer. 1957 - Returned to Australia. Settled in Port MacQuarie with her husband. 6th December 2006 - Wake returned to England. Sadly, we have learned that Nancy Wake passed away on 7th August 2011.

Items Signed by Nancy Wake (deceased)

Packs with at least one item featuring the signature of Nancy Wake (deceased)