W. Griffith Purcell (July 14, 1912 – April 1, 1983) was a Virginia lawyer and politician, who represented his native Richmond from 1950 to 1956, before retiring to concentrate on his general practice.
[6] On January 4, 1943, Purcell enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army during World War II, rising to the rank of colonel.
He was enlisted as an officer on January 18, 1945, and discharged on April 22, 1946.<[7] In 1949 Purcell ran for and won election as one of seven delegates representing Richmond in the Virginia House of Delegates, and won re-ekection twice (serving 1950 to 1956), as the tumultuous Massive Resistance period began.
In 1956, following both U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Brown v. Board of Education (1954 and 1955), E. Tucker Carlton joined the Richmond delegation.
Only three men represented Richmond in the 1956 convention concerning Massive Resistance, which included his former colleague G. Edmund Massie.