WW2: Col. Francis Pickens Miller (1895-1978), Oxonian, U.S. Intelligence Leader

Col. Francis Pickens Miller (1895-1978) was born in Kentucky on the Virginia border and studied at Washington & Lee University, in Lexington, Virginia.

After serving in the field artillery in World war I, he went on to study at Trinity College, Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. Helen Hill Miller, Col. Miller's wife, was the U.S. correspondent for The Economist; I met her and Col. Miller at my Dad's house in Washington in the 1960s.

My Dad, E. R. Marlin, was in the O.S.S. in Dublin and London in World War II and reported to Col. Miller.

Miller's intelligence papers are at the George C. Marshall Library and Museum, which is between Washington and Lee University, which Miller attended, and the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va.

Thanks to Tim Sullivan for sending me the link to the following documentary, which describes the evolution of the O.S. during World War II and reviews its achievements.

This 46-minute documentary movie discusses the raison-d'être of the O.S.S., and Wild Bill Donovan's contribution to the war effort.