Virginia Hall

About Virginia Hall

Who is it?: American Spy
Birth Day: April 06, 1906
Birth Place: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., United States
Died On: July 8, 1982(1982-07-08) (aged 76)\nRockville, Maryland
Birth Sign: Taurus
Allegiance: United States United Kingdom Free France
Service: SOE (1940–44) OSS (1944–45) CIA (SAD) (1951–66)
Active: 1940–1966
Operation(s): Operation Jedburgh
Award(s): Member of the Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Cross
Codename(s): Diane
Other work: US Department of State (1931–39)
Birth name: Virginia Hall
Buried: Pikesville, Maryland
Spouse: Paul Gaston Goillot
Alma mater: Radcliffe College Barnard College American University

Virginia Hall Net Worth

Virginia Hall was born on April 06, 1906 in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., United States, is American Spy. Virginia Hall Goillot was an American spy and most wanted by the ‘Geheime Staatspolizei’ (Gestapo), the official secret police of Nazis. Her espionage started at the time of World War II with the British ‘Special Operations Executive’ following amputation of a portion of her left leg that deterred her from pursuing a career in the Foreign Service. Later she joined the ‘Special Operations Branch’ of the United States ‘Office of Strategic Services’. Post war she worked as an intelligence analyst on French parliamentary affairs in the ‘Special Activities Division’ of the ‘Central Intelligence Agency’ (CIA) of America. She adopted several nicknames during her espionage including "Nicolas", "Marie of Lyon", "Marie Monin", "Camille", "Diane" and "Germaine". She was called ‘Artemis’ and "lady with the limp" by the Germans. She was an honorary ‘Member of the Order of the British Empire’. On September 27, 1945, she received the ‘Distinguished Service Cross’ award from General William Joseph Donovan as the only civilian woman for her efforts in France at the time of World War II. Posthumously she was honoured by the British and French embassies in 2006. ‘The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy’ by Judith L. Pearson and ‘L'Espionne. Virginia Hall, une Américaine dans la guerre’ by Vincent Nouzille narrate the adventurous life of Virginia Hall.
Virginia Hall is a member of Spies

💰Virginia Hall Net worth: $14 Million

Some Virginia Hall images

Awards and nominations:

For her efforts in France, General William Joseph Donovan in September 1945, personally awarded Hall a Distinguished Service Cross — the only one awarded to a civilian woman in World War II. President Truman wanted a public award of the medal; however Hall demurred, stating she was "Still operational and most anxious to get busy." She was made an honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

Biography/Timeline

1931

Hall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Barbara Virginia Hammel and Edwin Lee Hall. She attended Roland Park Country School and then the prestigious Radcliffe College and Barnard College (Columbia University), where she studied French, Italian and German. She wanted to finish her studies in Europe. With help from her parents, she travelled the Continent and studied in France, Germany, and Austria, finally landing an appointment as a Consular Service clerk at the American Embassy in Warsaw, Poland in 1931. Hall had hoped to join the Foreign Service, but suffered a setback around 1932 when she accidentally shot herself in the left leg while hunting in Turkey. The leg was later amputated from the knee down, and replaced with a wooden appendage which she named "Cuthbert". The injury foreclosed whatever chance she might have had for a diplomatic career, and she resigned from the Department of State in 1939. Thereafter she attended graduate school at American University in Washington, DC.

1940

The coming of war that year found Hall in Paris. She joined the Ambulance Service before the fall of France and ended up in Vichy-controlled territory when the fighting stopped in the summer of 1940.

1941

Hall made her way to London and volunteered for Britain's newly formed Special Operations Executive (SOE), which sent her back to Vichy in August 1941. She spent the next 15 months there, helping to coordinate the activities of the French Underground in Vichy and the occupied zone of France. At the time she had the cover of a correspondent for the New York Post.

1942

When the Germans suddenly seized all of France in November 1942, Hall barely escaped to Spain. Rather whimsically, her artificial foot had its own codename ("Cuthbert"). According to Dr. Dennis Casey of the U.S. Air Force Intelligence Agency, the French nicknamed her "la dame qui boite" and the Germans put "the limping lady" on their most wanted list. Before making her escape, she signalled to SOE that she hoped Cuthbert would not give trouble on the way. The SOE, not understanding the reference, replied, "If Cuthbert troublesome, eliminate him". Journeying back to London (after working for SOE for a time in Madrid), in July 1943 she was quietly made an honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

1944

Virginia Hall joined the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Special Operations Branch in March 1944 and asked to return to occupied France. She hardly needed training in clandestine work behind enemy lines, and OSS promptly granted her request and landed her from a British MTB in Brittany (her artificial leg having kept her from parachuting in) with a forged French identification certificate for Marcelle Montagne. Codenamed "Diane", she eluded the Gestapo and contacted the French Resistance in central France. She mapped drop zones for supplies and commandos from England, found safe houses, and linked up with a Jedburgh team after the Allied Forces landed at Normandy. Hall helped train three battalions of Resistance forces to wage guerrilla warfare against the Germans and kept up a stream of valuable reporting until Allied troops overtook her small band in September.

1945

For her efforts in France, General william Joseph Donovan in September 1945, personally awarded Hall a Distinguished Service Cross — the only one awarded to a civilian woman in World War II. President Truman wanted a public award of the medal; however Hall demurred, stating she was "Still operational and most anxious to get busy." She was made an honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

1950

In 1950, Hall married former OSS agent Paul Goillot. In 1951, she joined the Central Intelligence Agency working as an intelligence analyst on French parliamentary affairs. She worked alongside her husband as part of the Special Activities Division.

1966

Hall retired in 1966 to a farm in Barnesville, Maryland.

1982

Virginia Hall Goillot died at the Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, Maryland on 8 July 1982, aged 76. She is buried in the Druid Ridge Cemetery, Pikesville, Baltimore County, Maryland.

2005

Her story was told in The Wolves at the Door : The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy by Judith L. Pearson (2005) The Lyons Press, ISBN 1-59228-762-X.
A biography exists in French: L'Espionne. Virginia Hall, une Américaine dans la guerre, by Vincent Nouzille (2007) Fayard (Paris), a book reviewed by British Historian M.R.D. Foot in "Studies in Intelligence", Vol 53, N°1. She was honoured again in 2006, at the French and British embassies for her courageous work.