The White Mouse – Resistance hero

Nancy Wake was one of the most famous SOE operatives of the Second World War. Working in Occupied France, she first helped rescue allied airmen, and then working with the French Resistance led a campaign of sabotage against the Nazis. The Gestapo called her the White Mouse and at one stage she topped their “most wanted” list.

Born in New Zealand, but raised in Australia, she was honoured by many countries and received the George Medal, one of the highest civilian gallantry awards in Britain. The Australian Special Forces Association, whose patron she was,  have organised memorials to her in each of the four countries she called home. This weekend I was up in Port Macquarie on the NSW coast, where she lived for many years, together with my good friend the French Ambassador and the NZ Defence attaché, as well as many local dignitaries for a ceremony to unveil a plaque in her honour.

In my speech I talked about the role of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the War, charged by Churchill to “make a bloody nuisance of yourselves” behind enemy lines. Nancy was the most famous of many women who worked in SOE. One quarter of their female agents were killed in action or in Nazi concentration camps. I also talked about how Nancy ended her days in London, holding court at the Stafford Hotel in St James – an officers’ club during WWII – over several gin and tonics each day, before passing away peacefully in 2011 at the splendid age of 98. Several people who had known her paid warm tribute to her indomitable personality, including Keith Payne VC, one of Australia’s handful of living Victoria Cross holders.

It was also nice to meet the new local MP for Port Macquarie, David Gillespie, a surgeon who had just been sworn into the  federal Parliament the previous week. As we travelled back to Canberra on the plane together he was working on his maiden speech.