In our ongoing series #WomenThatDid, ENTITY profiles inspirational and famous women in history whose impact on our world can still be felt today. If you have a suggestion for a historical powerhouse you would like to see featured, tweet us with the hashtag #WomenThatDid.
Name: Virginia Hall
Lifetime: 1906-1982
What she’s known for: From the Anna Smith Strong, one of the various female spies used in the Revolutionary War, to the Girl Guides who delivered messages during World War I, women have long been used as spies.
One of the most successful spies was Virginia Hall was born in 1906 in Baltimore, Maryland, and studied in schools all over Europe. She was planning on a career in diplomacy, but after a hunting trip gone awry she ended up having to amputate her lower left leg. And so she had to change career directions. She became a spy, and a good one at that.
Why we love her: She worked clerical positions for the State Department in Turky, Italy and Estonia during World War II. But apparently those weren’t enough adrenaline, because she worked as an ambulance driver in Paris.
Who knows what that involved in Paris during a war? But she didn’t stop there. After that she spent 15 months in Vichy working for the Britain’s Special Operations Executive coordinating the French Underground. Then once Germany seized the remaining French land in 1942 she fled to Spain and worked for the SEO in Madrid. After that, she went to work for the OSS—the organization before the CIA ever existed—and went back to work in Paris.
She was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. Britain wanted to give her a better reward, but that would have jeopardized her cover as a spy. She was the only civilian woman during World War II to receive a Distinguished Service Cross.
Fun fact: Her code name was Diane, which she used to avoid the German Gestapo.
