Ships
- USS Vincennes (CL-64) Captain from 27 January 1945. The list gives no relief date.
William George Lalor had Vincennes (CL-64) from 27 January 1945. NavSource gives that day and no relief. The ship was then at Ulithi, about to join Task Group 58.1 for the Tokyo strikes, Okinawa, and the long shore bombardment in May and June.
Uboat.net gives his birth as 6 December 1897 and leaves the place blank. The Naval History and Heritage Command finding aid for his papers says he was born at Rutland, Vermont, in 1897, and gives no day. He died on 26 July 1978. The finding aid does not give a place of death.
He entered the Naval Academy in 1917 and graduated in 1921. The finding aid says he was assigned to USS Dakota and later transferred to the Atlantic Fleet, then attended the Naval War College and the Post Graduate School at Annapolis for the General Line course. He was executive officer of Sands and Williamson, served in the Bureau of Navigation, and served with battleship divisions. The name is printed Dakota. Uboat.net lists him as lieutenant commander from 1 July 1936, commander from 1 July 1941, and temporary captain from 20 June 1942. It dates command of Peary (DD-226) from 8 May 1939 to 28 December 1939 and of Paul Jones (DD-230) from 28 June 1940 to 20 December 1940.
In 1939 the finding aid orders him to the Asiatic Station as commanding officer of Peary, and later of Paul Jones and Destroyer Squadron 57. It does not mention Vincennes. NavSource and uboat.net both start him as temporary captain of Vincennes (CL-64) on 27 January 1945. Neither gives a day he left her. DANFS does not name him. From that date the ship's history runs through the February strikes on Tokyo, the shelling of Okino Daito Shima on 1 March, the air attacks off Kyushu and Okinawa, the bombardment with Vicksburg from 17 May to 16 June, and the overhaul at Mare Island while the war ended.
From 1947 to 1948 he was Secretary of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He continued on the Joint Staff after he retired from active duty on 1 July 1950. The finding aid calls him Rear Admiral William G. Lalor and, in the biographical sentence, Admiral Lalor. NavSource prints captain and no later rank. A small collection of his papers holds two letters. One, written to Ernest M. Eller between 13 and 21 January 1972, recalls wartime service in the Philippines with Admirals Thomas C. Hart and William R. Purnell. He died on 26 July 1978.