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Wake left Australia just after the 1951 election and moved back to England. She worked as an intelligence officer in the department of the [[Assistant Chief of the Air Staff]] at the Air Ministry in Whitehall. She resigned in 1957 after marrying an RAF officer, John Forward, in December of that year. They relocated to Australia in the early 1960s.<ref name=telegraph_obituary /> Maintaining her interest in politics, Wake was endorsed as a Liberal candidate at the [[1966 Australian federal election|1966 federal election]] for the Sydney seat of [[Division of Kingsford Smith|Kingsford Smith]]. Despite recording a swing of 6.9 per cent against the sitting Labor member Daniel Curtin, Wake was again unsuccessful.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/a/australia/1966/1966repsnsw.txt|title=Kingsford-Smith, NSW|work=Voting by constituency: Legislative election 1966|date=26 November 1966|access-date=11 June 2011}}</ref> Around 1985, Wake and John Forward left Sydney to retire to [[Port Macquarie]].
In 1985, Wake published her autobiography, ''The White Mouse''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Wake, Nancy|title=The White Mouse|publisher=Sun Books|year=1985|isbn=0-330-35605-4}}</ref> Later, after 40 years of marriage, her husband John Forward died at Port Macquarie on 19 August 1997. The couple had no children. She sold her medals to fund herself, saying, "There was no point in keeping them, I'll probably go to hell and they'd melt anyway."<ref name=guardian_obituary /> In 2001, Wake left Australia for the last time and emigrated to London.<ref name=Grauniad /> She became a resident at the Stafford Hotel in St. James' Place, near Piccadilly, formerly a British and American forces club during the war. She had been introduced to her first "bloody good drink" there by the general manager at the time, Louis Burdet. He also had worked for the Resistance in Marseille. In the mornings she would usually be found in the hotel bar, sipping her first gin and tonic of the day and telling war stories. She was welcomed at the hotel, celebrating her ninetieth birthday there. The hotel owners absorbed most of the costs of her stay. In 2003, Wake chose to move to the [[Royal Star and Garter Home, Richmond|Royal Star and Garter Home for Disabled Ex-Service Men and Women]], in [[Richmond, London]], where she remained until her death.<ref name=telegraph_obituary />
Wake died on 7 August 2011, aged 98, at Kingston Hospital after being admitted with a chest infection.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/war-heroine-nancy-wake-dies/story-e6freuy9-1226110701605|title=War heroine Nancy Wake dies|publisher=[[The Daily Telegraph (Sydney)]]|year=2011|access-date=8 August 2011}}</ref> She had requested that her ashes be scattered at [[Montluçon]] in central France.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/the-wartime-heroics-of-nancy-wake-saved-thousands-of-lives/story-e6frg6nf-1226110719801|title=The heroics of Nancy Wake saved thousands of lives and played a crucial role in the outcome of the war|work=The Australian|agency=Australian Associated Press|date=8 August 2011|access-date=9 August 2011|quote=One operation included an attack on the local Gestapo headquarters in Montluçon, central France, where she requested her ashes be scattered.}}</ref> Her ashes were scattered near the village of [[Verneix]], which is near Montluçon, on 11 March 2013.<ref>{{cite news|title=War hero Nancy Wake's ashes scattered in France|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-11/nancy-wakes-ashes-scattered-in-france/4564500|access-date=11 March 2013|work=ABC News|date=11 March 2013}}</ref> Her obituary was included in (and inspired the title for) ''The Socialite Who Killed A Nazi With Her Bare Hands: And 144 Other Fascinating People Who Died This Year'', a collection of ''New York Times'' obituaries published in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/the-socialite-who-killed-obits_n_2272034.html|title='The Socialite Who Killed A Nazi With Her Bare Hands': The Book We're Talking About|work=The Huffington Post|date=2012-10-12|access-date=2017-04-29}}</ref>
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