Virginia Hall was born in 1906 to Barbara and Edwin Lee (Ned) Hall, a Baltimore banker who also owned a movie theater. Virginia, known as "Dindy" to her family, was a free spirit who went against the conventions of the 1920s, wearing pants in place of skirts. She loved hunting and riding horses bareback. Virginia was viewed as a natural leader by her classmates.
While her mother wanted Virginia to marry into Baltimore society, her father allowed her the freedom she craved. Despite this, Virginia did become engaged at the age of nineteen but she eventually broke off the engagement and enrolled at Radcliffe College in 1924. Finding this school boring, she switched to Barnard College in Manhattan.
It was while studying languages, economics and journalism in Vienna, that Virginia met and fell in love with Emil, a young Polish army officer. Because her family objected to this relationship, Virginia broke up with him.
Living in Europe resulted in Virginia learning a number of foreign languages, and becoming informed on European culture and politics. She developed a deep love for France, her "second country" and became concerned over the rise of fascism in Europe. In 1929, she returned to the United States, to study French and economics at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She attempted to become a diplomat but her application was rejected.
After the death of her father in 1931, Virginia obtained a position at the US embassy in Poland, processing mail, diplomatic visas, and coding and decoding telegrams. In 1933, Virginia transferred to Smyrna, Turkey and it was there that she suffered a life-changing injury, shooting herself accidently in her left foot. When gangrene set in, surgeons were forced to amputate her left leg below the knee to save her life. Virginia returned home in June, 1934 endured several more operations and was given a new wooden prosthetic leg she named "Cuthbert". This period of her life at her family's home, Box Horn Farm was difficult as Virginia had to learn how to walk.
She was able to obtain a new post at the US consulate in Venice, Italy, where she continued to impress her superiors with her abilities. At age thirty, Virginia's second attempt to obtain a diplomat position was rejected on the grounds of her being an amputee. Instead, she was given a posting in Tallinn, Estonia where she arrived after getting the needed repairs to her prosthetic leg in Paris.
In March, 1939,with war on the horizon, she resigned and left for London, September. After being rejected as a volunteer for the Auxiliary Territorial Service, Virginia went to Paris and signed up as an ambulance driver for the French Ninth Artillery Regiment. When France was invaded by the Nazis, Virginia was determined to help. But she knew she needed to get back to London.
In Spain, en route to London, a chance meeting with George Bellows, a British secret agent was to be Virginia's way into the British SOE as a liaison officer. She was known as Agent 3844 and was sent into Vichy France. She would be tasked with reporting on the situation in France and helping other agents as they arrived. But Virginia would accomplish so much more than that - helping the Allies years later in
Discussion
Agent Most Wanted is the story of Virginia Hall, a woman who overcame the barriers of gender and disability to become the first Allied woman secret agent in France, significantly helping the French Resistance during World War II.
Author Sonia Purnell undertook extensive research, interviewing Virginia Hall's niece, Lorna Catling and traveling to France, to speak with the people of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and many others including the son of Georges Duboudin who was known as agent "Alain".
Virginia Hall was a most extraordinary woman, a heroine of the war and one of the most effective Allied agents. Purnell explores Virginia's early life, her personality and the factors that formed her into the courageous leader she became. Nicknamed "Dindy" by her family, Virginia strongly resisted what was considered an "acceptable" life for a young woman in the 1930's. She broke an engagement, got herself well educated and was determined to have a career as a diplomat. Her father allowing her the freedom to be herself led to Virginia forging her own path. Eventually, as an Allied secret agent, she would make significant contributions during the war.
She recruited people to support the resistance to the Nazis in France, recruiting people to help fight the Nazis and defend their country. She recruited people who provided safe houses for agents hiding from the Nazis, obtaining weapons, medicine and supplies for the French Resistance. She also educated incoming British agents helping them to blend into the French culture so they wouldn't be caught by the Gestapo.
Virginia infiltrated the Surete, the Vichy government's counter-espionage force and she orchestrated prison escapes of SOE agents, most notably the spectacular escape of twelve SOE agents called Clan Cameron from the Mauzac prison camp.
Despite her remarkable abilities and her outstanding record, Virginia struggled at first to be taken seriously by the SOE in London. Many times male agents were taken at their word, over her more experienced opinions. The SOE refused to put Virginia in charge, even though she was the most competent agent in France. Without military rank, her competence could be questioned and her advice ignored.
Purnell relates all of this plus explores the personal cost to Virginia, both the physical suffering she had to endure at times to get to safety and the loneliness she experienced. She also suffered from the betrayal of her network in Lyon by Robert Alesch, a Roman Catholic priest and Nazi collaborator and agent for the Abwehr. Virginia Hall proved that women could be excellent agents and paved the way for many other female agents, many of whom lost their lives.
Purnell tells Virginia's story in short chapters, with black and white photographs of many significant people involved in Virginia's work in France and important people in her life in the post-war period. The author also provides Notes giving sources for the information in each chapter, a Bibliography and an Index.
Agent Most Wanted is an engaging story about one of the most significant but probably under-acknowledged heroes of the Second World War. Well-written and well worth the read.
Book Details:
Agent Most Wanted: The Never Before Told Story of the Most Dangerous Spy of World War II by Sonia Purnell
New York: Viking 2022
200 pp.
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