A Good Man to Work With

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 758, 29 January 1954, Page 19

A Good Man to Work With

| HE Australian-born historian, war p t and radio commentator, Wilmot, who was aboard the Comet jet airliner which crashed into the Mediterranean a few weeks ago, was heard most recently as narrator of the round-the-world radio programme which preceded the Queen's Christmas Day broadcast, Mr. Wilmot was. perhaps best known for his -bestselling study of Allied war policy, The Struggle for Europe. Laurence Gilliam told The Listener when he was:in New Zealand a few months ago that much of the material on which the book was based was originally commissioned bist 8 . the BBC. for ~ historical ies,

documentaty Mee grammes. Here is a picture of Wilmot at work as Keith Hay, NZBS Senior Talks Officer, saw him in the autumn of 1950. "Chester Wilmot was at that time broadcasting from the BBC a weekly political commentary for Australia which I was producing," Mr. Hay told The Listener. "Each week he would come into . the studio ‘about 20 minutes before his broadcaststraight from the House of Commons. and usually | with the latest piece. of political gossip from the lobbies. Most of his script would be written out, but thefe would be several alternative endings so that he could fit his talk accurately into the five minutes allowed. He would tell me as we looked at the script, ‘I’m

going to talk about this»and this, and if I've time I'll elaborate this point." The arrangement was that I should nod to him when four minutes was up and give him a signal at four and a half minutes. "After a run through he would start his broadcast. At four and a half minutes he .would begin to round it off, his eyes moving up and down from script to clock. At five minutes dead he would stop." Mr. Hay described Wilmot as. a stocky, dark-haired man with a very forceful, almost "thrusting" personality.

"He was a good man to work with," he said. "He would’listen to what you had to say-and eithér accept or reject it right away. As a news analyst he was the most assured and competent man I’ve known. He-was really on top of his job." Wilmot was writing his book at that time-he spent five years on it--and friends at the BBC who had seen parts of the manuscript told Mr. Hay it was going to be "a world-beater." Chester Wilmot’s voice will be heard _ from 3YZ at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, Febryary 6,°in Town Forum, in which’ he is one of a panel answering questions about~ Australia.