 He was killed in the crash of a BOAC Comet over the Mediterranean Sea.Wilmot was born in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne; he was the son of Reginald Wilmot, a sports journalist, and grandson of surveyor JGW Wilmot.He attended Melbourne Grammar School and then studied history, politics and law under Sir Ernest Scott at the University of Melbourne, where he resided at Trinity College and became interested in debating; after he graduated in 1936, he went on an international debating tour.