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Virginia Hall Goillot, who was born in Baltimore, United States of America, was an American spy who worked in the British Special Operations Service during World War II. Her effectiveness earned her the honor of being considered by the Nazi regime as the most dangerous allied spy. These are the summarized keys to her biography, which we will develop later:
- She was a spy who helped the French Resistance during World War II, worked for British and American intelligence, and became one of the most wanted enemies of the Nazis.
- He was born on April 6, 1906 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
- He passed away on July 8, 1982 in Rockville, Maryland, United States of America.
- She married Paul Goillot in 1950.
- He received the following awards: Member of the Order of the British Empire (1943), Distinguished Service Cross (1945), Croix de Guerre avec Palme.
His childhood and youth, and his education
Virginia Hall was the daughter of Barbara and Edwin Hall. Her name, Virginia, was her mother’s middle name. As a child, she attended Roland Park Country School, an all-girls preparatory school. She subsequently attended Radcliffe College and Barnard, a prestigious New York women’s college, where she studied several languages including French, German, and Italian. With the support of her parents, Virginia traveled to Europe to complete her studies. She toured the continent in the late 1920s, studying in Austria, France, and Germany with the goal of working in the diplomatic corps.
In 1931 she began working at the US embassy in Warsaw, Poland, as an employee of the Consular Service, with the intention that this job would be a springboard for a career in the US Foreign Service. However, in 1932 Virginia Hall had a hunting accident that caused the partial amputation of her leg. Forced to adjust to life with a wooden leg, which she nicknamed “Cuthbert,” her diplomatic career ended before it began. Hall resigned from the State Department in 1939 and returned to Washington, DC, where she attended graduate school at American University.
The Special Operations Service
In 1940, as World War II raged across Europe, Virginia Hall was located in Paris. She had joined the Ambulance Service to help in France during the war and was in Vichy when France was invaded by the Nazis. She managed to leave France after the German occupation and the establishment of the puppet regime in Vichy and reach London, where she volunteered with the Special Operations Service, the British military spy organization.
Using the New York Post reporting position as cover, Virginia Hall spent more than a year in Vichy, working to coordinate the activities of the French Resistance. In 1942 she worked alongside prominent Special Operations Service agent Peter Churchill on a couple of missions, including delivering money and transferring agents to French spy networks. Hall worked mainly in and around the cities of Toulouse and Lyon.
Virginia Hall’s work was inconspicuous but quickly caught the attention of the Germans. Nicknamed the lame lady, she was one of the most wanted spies by the occupation regime. In 1942 Germany completed the occupation of all of France and Virginia Hall had to flee. She narrowly escaped Lyon by train, and she had to walk across the Pyrenees to get to Spain. Throughout this ordeal her sense of humor remained intact; she conveyed to her handlers from her Special Operations Service that she hoped Cuthbert, her wooden leg, wouldn’t cause trouble during her escape. She was briefly arrested for illegally crossing into Spain, but later released with the help of the US embassy. For about a year she worked in the Madrid-based Special Operations Service and then returned to London,
Continue your career as a spy
Despite having completed her work with the British Special Operations Service, Virginia Hall’s spy career was not over. She joined the equivalent American organization, the Office of Strategic Services, Special Operations branch, and asked to return to France, still under Nazi occupation. Granting her request, the Office of Strategic Services sent her to Brittany, France, under a false identity and code name.
Over the next year Virginia Hall mapped supply drop-off areas and safe houses, worked on Operation Jedburgh, personally helped train French Resistance fighters in guerilla warfare, and sent a stream constant information to allied intelligence. Her work continued until the end of the war; Virginia Hall only stopped sending information when Allied forces reached his team’s position in September 1945.
Returning to the United States, Virginia Hall married Paul Goillot, a former agent with the Office of Strategic Services. Both went on to work at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) where Virginia Hall became an intelligence analyst, specializing in French parliamentary affairs. Both Hall and Goillot were assigned to the Special Activities Division, the CIA division that focused on developing covert operations.
Retirement, death and recognitions
After fifteen years with the CIA, Virginia Hall retired in 1966 and moved with her husband to a farm in Barnesville, Maryland. She died sixteen years later at the age of 76 in Rockville, Maryland, and was buried nearby.
During her lifetime, Virginia Hall received some of the most prestigious honors in the Western world. Not only was she made an Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire, but she was also awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the only such award given to a woman for her service during World War II by the government. US. The French government awarded her the Croix de Guerre in honor of her work during the occupation of France. She received other honors even after her death. She was remembered in 2006, on what would have been her 100th birthday, by the French and British ambassadors to the United States, and was inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame in 2019. She continues to be considered one of the most efficient spies in american history,
Sources
- Pearson, Judith L. The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America’s Greatest Female Spy . Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2005.
- Purnell, Sonia. A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of WWII’s Most Dangerous Spy, Virginia Hall . Hachette UK, 2019.
- Virginia Hall: The Courage and Daring of ‘The Limping Lady’ . Central Intelligence Agency, October 8, 2015, https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2015-featured-story-archive/virginia-hall-the-courage-and-daring- of-the-limping-lady.html.
