A number of people in the Society will have known Nancy Wake personally. Nancy presided over her birthday parties each year, gatherings of a few friends, mainly SOE but on each occasion some ELMS friends too. On one occasion, bereft of any idea about what to take Nancy Wake , I eventually decided upon a wicker basket of preserves, wine, biscuits and fudge.
This was all gift-wrapped and I carefully carried it all the way to south London from North Yorkshire by train, without mishap! The day before I left I had visited Eden Camp Museum where I had spotted some white sugar mice, so I had included one on the top of the basket. On the 17 August I again travelled south, this time to say goodbye to Nancy as she made her final Home-Run.
I understood that she wanted no fuss at her funeral and had only listed ten people she wanted to be present — five of those were ELMS members. In line with her request, the small group met up. Her coffin was draped in a Union Jack with a single poppy wreath placed on top. I took the liberty of placing two white mice on the coffin. Another gentlemen also placed his white mouse. She was never betrayed. Born in New Zealand, Nancy grew up in Australia. As a young girl she twice ran away from home and later trained as a nurse.
Aged 19 she became a journalist based in Paris, New York and London. As a freelance journalist and war correspondent, she interviewed Adolf Hitler in and attended the mass rallies. That interview changed her life and at that early stage she had decided to oppose Nazism having witnessed them beating Jews in Germany. When war broke out she trained as an ambulance driver. Although her house became a safe-house for the line and held evaders and escapers, to take the pressure of the house and Henri, Nancy bought a flat for the Resistance which she also used as a safe-house for evaders and men on the run.
The Resistance also used it as a base for arms, ammunition and stores. Operating from her flat, Nancy became a key courier travelling throughout southern France to deliver her parcels evaders from Nice, Nimes, Toulon, Cannes and Marseille onwards to Perpignan and the Pyrenees border areas. Nancy also delivered civilian clothing, documents and money.
