In 97%+ very sharp condition we have a very rare Still in the original box with all the Giblets US WW2 production Colt M1908 General Officers Pistol that was issued in 1944-45 To BG Georges F. Doriot. This is a late war production Colt that is “M” marked which indicated that it one of the large group of pistols that was returned to Colt for a slight modification to improve reliability. As there were only ever approximately 3,000 of these M1908 Miltiary Issues, they are much rare than the US Property marked 1903 Colts. This comes with a Colt factory letter indicating shipment in November, 1944 along with other documentation and photographs as well.
Brigadier General Doriot was one of the most Prominent Franco/American Businessmen of the 20th Century and is considered to be one of the Father of Venture Capitalism in Post War America. Born in Paris, in 1899, he served as an Artillery officer in the French Amry in WW1 and then moved to the United States where he began a business career and attended Harvard Business School. A friend of Franklin Roosevelt, at his request he became a US citizen and went into the Army Quartermaster Corps as a colonel and later a General in early 1945. He made many important contributions during the war including the organization of the entire US Army Supply Chain and was Director of the Research and Development Branch of the Military Planning Division. After the war he became an important figure in the postwar boom as the president of the 1st Venture Capital Company, American Research and Development Corp. He was a highly influential economics educator at Harvard and was a very well known figure whose influence is still being felt today. This pistol is part of his WW2 Legacy and would be an important addition to any serious General Officers Pistol Collection.
