Virginia (Hall) Goillot (1906 - 1982)

Born 6 Apr 1906 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Ancestors

Died 8 Jul 1982 at age 76 in Rockville, Montgomery, Maryland, United States

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Virginia (Hall) Goillot is buried in Druid Ridge Cemetery.

Biography

Virginia (Hall) Goillot is Notable.

Viginia Hall has long been one of the unsung heroes of World War II. Her actions behind enemy lines in Vichy France were successful in disrupting German operations until they saturated the countryside with wanted posters for the limping lady.

Virginia Hall was born 6 Apr 1906 in Baltimore, Maryland. She was the daughter of Barbara Virginia Hammel and Edwin Lee Hall. She had an elder brother, John, born 1902^[1][2][3].

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 so with help from her parents, she traveled the continent and studied in France, Germany, Austria and Poland.^[4]

Virginia Hall served as a Consular Service clerk at the American Embassy in Warsaw, Poland in 1931. In 1932, Virginia 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 caused her to later resign from the Department of State in 1939.

The onset of World War II 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. When the Germans suddenly seized all of France in November 1942, Hall barely escaped to Spain.

August 1941, Hall made her way to London and volunteered for Britain's newly formed Special Operations Executive (SOE), which sent her back to Vichy, France. ^[5] 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.

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.[14][15] President Truman wanted a public award of the medal; however Hall demurred, stating she was "Still operational and most anxious to get busy."[11] She was made an honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), and she was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palme by France.[16] She was honoured again for her courageous work in 2006, on the 100th anniversary of her birth, by the French and British ambassadors in Washington.[17] Hall was posthumously inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame in 2019.^[6][7]

In 1950, Hall married 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.

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

She passed away in 1982 in Rockville, Maryland.^[8][9]

Sources

1. ↑ "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M2F7-1LH : accessed 17 March 2018), Virginia Hall in household of Edwin L Hall, Baltimore Ward 12, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 192, sheet 12B, family 398, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 556; FHL microfilm 1,374,569.
2. ↑ "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M63K-C9P : accessed 17 March 2018), Virginia Hall in household of Edwin Lee Hall, Baltimore Ward 13, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland, United States; citing ED 202, sheet 7B, line 80, family 157, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 658; FHL microfilm 1,820,658.
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X3WV-SF5 : accessed 17 March 2018), Virginia Hall in household of Edwin Hall, Baltimore (Districts 501-673), Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 571, sheet 7B, line 98, family 259, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 855; FHL microfilm 2,340,590.
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Hall
5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vichy_France
6. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Hall
7. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20070613142626/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/oss/art05.htm
8. ↑ "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VMB4-WW1 : 19 May 2014), Virginia Goillot, Jul 1982; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
9. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #14354228

See Also:

• The Secrets of the Office of Strategic Services Personnel Records: Spotlight on Virginia Hall https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2020/04/16/the-secrets-of-the-office-of-strategic-services-personnel-records/
• A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell (2019) Penguin Publishing Group
• 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
• https://web.archive.org/web/20200127064436/https://photos.state.gov/libraries/estonia/99874/History%20stories/Not-Bad-for-a-Girl-from-Baltimore.pdf
• https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=512
• https://web.archive.org/web/20150606010419/http://www.paperdroids.com/2012/11/09/notable-ladies-of-world-war-i/
• Rejected Princesses: Virginia Hall, accessed 1 July 2018.
• Film, "A Call to Spy," is a 2021 film telling the story of Virginia Hall and two other women in the SOE.
• Rosen, Jake. 'The Limping Lady': the One Legged World War II Superspy, 4 Mar 2022, accessed 29 March 2022.
• mentalfloss.com. 22 Influential Women You Probably Didn't Learn About in School, 28 Mar 2022, accessed 29 March 2022.