Tom Wilmot was the chief executive of the British Insurance Association for 25 years from 1946. Starting with a staff of just two he developed the trade body for insurance companies into a significant institution, later to change its name to the Association of British Insurers. He helped to develop better relations with government and overseas insurance markets. It was a period of significant change and consolidation, and he retired shortly after the financial collapse of the Vehicle & General Insurance Company, the consequences of which he did much to contain.

Born in 1915, the younger son of an army doctor, he was educated at Tonbridge. His career began with the Alliance Insurance Company during the Depression. By the outbreak of war he had risen to secretary’s assistant. Having joined the Inns of Court Regiment as a Territorial in 1936 he was commissioned into the Leicestershire Yeomanry in 1939 and spent most of the war in North Africa, including Alamein, the Middle East and Italy. In 1944 he volunteered to act as liaison with the partisans and during street fighting in Florence was wounded when the partisan leader he was assigned to was killed. He ended the war in Germany, back with the Leicester Yeomanry as part of the Guards Armoured Division.

He became chief executive of the British Insurance Association after the industry moved to establish its first professional organisation.

For the last 30 years of his life he devoted himself to City affairs, in particular the Corporation of London and City Livery Companies. In 1973 he was elected common councilman for the Ward of Cordwainer which he served until 2003 latterly as deputy. He served on several committees and spent a great deal of time and effort fighting for better architectural standards. He was instrumental in the Bow Lane conservation movement and was very vociferous in his opposition to the first Palumbo design for the Mappin & Webb site opposite Mansion House which was ultimately rejected. He was actively involved in resisting the threat of abolition of the City Corporation caused by the abolition of the GLC. He was a strong supporter of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and the Kensington Society.

In 1972 he was awarded a three-year research fellowship at the University of Sussex. His paper covered the availability of courses in insurance and risk management in Western Europe and was sponsored by the Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (commonly known as “the Geneva Association"), a body supported by major international insurance companies. After this he was asked to carry out further research into the cost of fire in Western Europe. This led to the publication of a report, European Fire Costs — The Wasteful Statistical Gap, which formed the basis for his contribution to a pilot study on fire statistics intiated by a United Nations working party in 1981. This research was considerably broadened when in 1982 he set up the World Fire Statistics Centre reporting to the Geneva Association. The object of the centre was concerned not so much with academic research but with the practical problem of reducing fire waste. He remained its director until his death.

He became Master of the Tallow Chandlers Livery Company in 1976 and oversaw a period when this ancient guild developed new trade links with the petroleum sector, particularly BP, with wich the company now sponsors a global awards scheme for young technologists. He was a founder liveryman of both the Insurers and Firefighters Companies and an active member of the City Pickwick Club and the Cordwainer Ward Club. He was a churchwarden of St Mary-le-Bow and a past chairman of France Fenwick (Lloyds Brokers). He continued to attend court meetings until shortly before his death.

Tom Wilmot, Chief Executive of the British Insurance Association, 1946-1971, was born on March 11, 1915. He died on February 15, 2007, aged 91