Reginald William Winchester (Chester) Wilmot

Description

One of Australia's pre-eminent war correspondents, Chester Wilmot was born on 21 June 1911 at Brighton, Melbourne. Having completed secondary school Wilmot attended Melbourne University where he studied history, politics and law. He graduated in 1936 and the following year, having been a champion debater at university, embarked on an international debating tour, at one point visiting Germany where he witnessed a Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg.

In 1939 he began work as a legal clerk, but at the beginning of the Second World War he joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission's field unit as a correspondent and sailed for the Middle East in 1940. He quickly gained recognition as a fine correspondent covering fighting in North Africa, Greece and Syria, and lived in Tobruk for several months during the siege.

Wilmot returned to Australia when Japan entered the war and became the ABC's principal correspondent in the Pacific. Covering the Papuan campaign in 1942, Wilmot became one of a small band of correspondents to walk the Kokoda Track where he grew increasingly critical of high command, at one point protesting to the Prime Minister when General Blamey sacked Lieutenant General Rowell. Blamey, as a result, cancelled Wilmot's accreditation. With the support of the ABC, Wilmot returned to Australia where he continued to broadcast from Sydney, wrote a book about Tobruk and worked on a documentary, Sons of Anzac, for the Australian War Memorial.

In May 1944 Wilmot began work in London for the BBC. On D-Day he flew in a glider with the British 6th Airborne Division and landed in France early on the morning of the invasion. He soon earned fame as a correspondent covering many of Britain's major operations during the remaining months of the war. He was present at the German surrender in May 1945 and returned to England to live after the war.

Wilmot continued to work as a broadcaster and journalist. His book, The struggle for Europe, became a best seller and remains one of the more highly regarded works on the war in Europe. Having returned to Australia to participate in the BBC's 1953 round-the-world Christmas Day broadcast, Wilmot was killed when the Comet aircraft in which he was flying back to England, crashed into the Mediterranean on 10 January 1954.

Details

Conflicts

• Second World War, 1939-1945

Places

• Brighton
• Mediterranean Sea

Gazettes