BOOK REVIEWS
A LIFE OF SELF RELIANCE
by
Sandie Duerksen
“A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped to Win World War II” by Sonia Purnell recounts the life of Virginia Hall, a name unfamiliar to many Americans, who was a hero to the cause of freedom. Purnell beautifully describes Virginia’s life, as she tells the story of secret disguises, various aliases used, some specific personality characteristics of our heroine (still used today when the Central Intelligence Agency interviews new hires), and exciting adventures that Virginia, in the name if freedom, bravely steps into which are life-threatening situations. She lived a life of independence and self-discipline; she was always true to her high standards: an individual like no other.
She was born to an upper-class family in Baltimore, Maryland in 1906 and attended Radcliffe College where she studied languages. After graduation, she traveled to Europe to sharpen her language skills. Living abroad was exciting, challenging, and intriguing for this woman soon to be of importance.
After landing a job as a service clerk at the American Embassy in Warsaw, Virginia suffered a devasting injury while hunting snipe with her father in Turkey: a gunshot wound to her foot resulted in the amputation of her lower leg. Fitted with a wooden leg, which she affectionately named Cuthbert, Virginia was resolved to never give up and to live a life of self-reliance.
Returning to the United States, she worked as a service clerk in the Department of State. She applied as a candidate for an opening in the diplomatic service but was turned down. Totally discouraged, she resigned from her job and when war broke out in Europe she made her move to engage in the fight for freedom.
It is 1940 and she is only 34 years old, a single woman, walking with an artificial leg, and a desire to never give up. She takes a job as an ambulance driver in France which leads her to a career of service that will result in her becoming the only woman to receive the U.S. Military Distinguished Service Cross as well as having a building named for her at the CIA in Washington DC.
In 1941, at the age of 35, Virginia joins the United Kingdom’s clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE) and is sent to Lyon, France posing as a reporter for the New York Post. She is an American with language skills that are invaluable as she sets up a network of freedom-seeking citizens to conduct sabotage, espionage, and reconnaissance. After a harrowing escape from France in late 1942 (which included trekking over the snow-covered Pyrenees – imagine that journey with an artificial leg!), she eventually joins the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and returns to France (the Haute Loire region this time) in March 1944 as a wireless radio operator. Her efforts helped assure that the Allies’ return to the European shores was successful. General William (Bill) Donovan personally awarded her the Distinguished Service Cross in September 1945 in recognition of her efforts in France. She had been awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1943 for her SOE service, as well as receiving the French Croix de Guerre with Palm in 1946 for heroism in combat.
After World War II, Virginia returned to the United States and, in 1947, secured a job with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Despite her successful efforts with the SOE and OSS and her natural talent for organizing operations, she was continuously discriminated against at the CIA because she was a woman – something that the CIA has acknowledged in a secret report of her career. It truly was a “good-old-boys” organization for many years. Eventually, in the 1950s, her talents were recogonized and she was given assignments which utilized those talents.
She retired from the CIA in 1966. During her OSS work in the Haute Loire, she met an OSS lieutenant, Paul Goillet. They returned to the United States after the war and lived together for 20 years. They married in 1957 and retired to a farm in Barnsville, Maryland. Hall’s death in July 1982 was followed by Goillet’s passing five years later. Both are buried in Druid Ridge Cemetery in Pikesville, Maryland.