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expensive furniture. Although she was promised reparations of over
F5,000,000, Nancy received almost nothing, just £70. Soon after VE
Day the news reached her that Pat O’Leary was on his way to Paris
from Dachau where he had been imprisoned. He was severely ill
from the torture and mistreatment and so Nancy took in on herself
to meet with him in Paris and nurse him back to health as best she
could. He had been severely tortured and suffered from malnutrition
and mistreatment in the prisons and concentration camp. Nancy then
worked with O’Leary on the Awards Bureau and together they were
able to discover the identity of the man who had betrayed the Line,
and O’Leary himself. They did not need to take their own retribution
as he was already dead, having himself been executed by her Maquis
soldiers.
Post War: After the war Nancy returned to Australia and unsuccessfully
stood as a Liberal candidate in the 1949 and 1951 elections for the
Sydney seat of Barton. Both times she narrowly lost to H. V. Evatt, who
would later become the leader of the Australian Labour Party.
Nancy left Australia after the 1951 election failure and returned to
London. Here she went on to work for the British Air Ministry intelligence
department at the Paris and Prague embassies, resigning in 1957
following marriage to an RAF ofcer, John Forward. Together they
returned to Sydney, retiring to Port Macquarie in 1969, further north in
New South Wales. After his death Nancy sold ner medals and again
returned to London. Here she had a number of friends from her war
days including fellow spy Sonia d’Artois. she enjoyed regaling bar
companions with war stories whilst sipping a gin and tonic.