Chester Wilmot

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Reginald William Winchester Wilmot

Born June 21, 1911(1911-06-21)
Flag of Australia Brighton, Victoria
Died January 10, 1954 (aged 42)
Mediterranean Sea, off Elba
Occupation broadcast reporter

Reginald William Winchester Wilmot (21 June 1911 – 10 January 1954) was an Australian war correspondent who reported for the BBC and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation during the Second World War. After the war he continued to work as a broadcast reporter, and wrote a well-appreciated book about the liberation of Europe. He was killed in the crash of a BOAC Comet over the Mediterranean Sea.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Wilmot was born in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne; he was the son of Reginald "Old Boy" Wilmot, a well-known sports journalist. He studied history, politics and law under Sir Ernest Scott at the University of Melbourne, where he also became interested in debating; after he graduated in 1936, he went on an international debating tour. One of the stops was in Nazi Germany where he went to a Nuremberg Rally. Wilmot began to work as a legal clerk in 1939.

[edit] War reporter

After only a few months of working in as a law clerk, the outbreak of the Second World War led Wilmot to join the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He was sent to the Middle East in 1940 and reported from North Africa, Greece and Syria; he was in Tobruk during the siege of 1941. When Japan entered the war, Wilmot returned to Australia and then went out to cover the war in the Pacific. He reported from Papua during the Japanese invasion in 1942, including the Kokoda Track campaign, where he walked the whole length of the track. Wilmot regarded the Australian General Thomas Blamey as incompetent and protested at his sacking of Lieutenant-General Sidney Rowell; in return, Blamey cancelled Wilmot's accreditation and he had to return to Sydney.

[edit] BBC work

There Wilmot wrote a book about his experiences in Tobruk, and narrated a documentary film called Sons of the ANZACs. In 1944 Wilmot transferred to the BBC where he was one of the principal reporters for D-Day, flying in a glider with the 6th Airborne Division. He was present reporting from the field for most of the actions during the liberation of Europe. When the German high command surrendered, Wilmot was present to report on it.

[edit] Military historian

After the end of the war Wilmot remained in England. He spent many years working on his book The Struggle for Europe, which is a journalistic telling of the story of the military campaign. When it appeared in 1952, the book was favourably reviewed, and it is well-regarded by military historians (John Keegan wrote that "Wilmot effectively invented the modern method of writing contemporary military history").

[edit] Broadcaster

Wilmot was part of the television commentary team for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. For Christmas 1953, Wilmot was sent by the BBC to Australia to participate in a round-the-world broadcast on Christmas day, where he narrated "The Queen's Journey", telling the story of recent royal visits. The Queen herself was in New Zealand for Christmas. Wilmot was returning to Britain by air on BOAC Flight 781, a de Havilland Comet airliner, when it broke up in mid-air over the Mediterranean Sea.

[edit] Books

  • The Struggle For Europe (written in part by Christopher Daniel McDevitt). (1997, Wordsworth Editions Ltd, Ware, Hertfordshire). ISBN 1853266779.

[edit] References

Persondata
NAME Wilmot, Reginald William Winchester
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilmot, Chester
SHORT DESCRIPTION 20th century Australian journalist and war historian
DATE OF BIRTH 21 June 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Brighton, Victoria
DATE OF DEATH 10 January 1954
PLACE OF DEATH BOAC Flight 781