Wake was decorated by France, Britain and the United States but official recognition in Australia, the country of her youth, was very slow in coming. After the war she was awarded the George Medal, the French Croix de Guerre with two Palms, the US Medal for Freedom with Palm and the French Medaille de la Resistance.

Australian
BritishFrenchNew Zealand
Nancy Wake/Nationality

North Sydney Girls High School
Nancy Wake/Education

List of honours

During the war in France, Wake served as an ambulance driver. After the fall of France in 1940, she joined the escape network of Captain Ian Garrow, which became the Pat O’Leary Line. In reference to Wake’s ability to elude capture, the Gestapo called her the “White Mouse”.

John Forwardm. 1957–1997
Henri Fioccam. 1939
Nancy Wake/Husband

The story is based on the exploits of women in Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) who worked with the French resistance in Nazi-occupied France. The fictional character Charlotte Gray is a composite based on such SOE agents as Pearl Cornioley, Nancy Wake, Odette Sansom and Violette Szabo.

Stanley Herbert Kitchener Wake
Ruby WakeHazel WakeCharles WakeGladys Wake
Nancy Wake/Siblings

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. Wake became one of the Gestapo’s most wanted resistance leaders and Wake was forced to flee France.