Michael Willmott was born in Chelsea in London in 1909, the son of Ernest Willmott (an architect) and Mabel Willmott (née Johnson).  At the time of the 1911 Census, he was living with parents and his younger brother and mother at his grandparent’s home in Broadstairs, Kent.  After leaving the Nautical College, Pangbourne, he signed on in the Merchant Service as an apprentice in 1926.  Promoted to Sub Lieutenant Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) on 16 July 1932, he joined the Royal Navy Submarine Service on 13 August and was then sent to HMS DOLPHIN for Submarine Training. On 17 August 1933, he joined HMS SEAHORSE as Navigating Officer.

This was followed by an appointment to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS CYCLOPS (1st Submarine Flotilla) at Malta for service in submarines based there.  He was transferred from the Royal Naval Reserve to the Supplementary List of the Royal Navy on 13 March 1937 with an adjusted seniority of 11 August 1933.  Michael Willmott returned to HMS DOLPHIN (5th Submarine Flotilla) on 19 April 1937, and on 15 August the same year was appointed to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS MEDWAY (4th Submarine Flotilla) at Hong Kong for HMS PHOENIX as Navigating Officer.  Remaining in the Far East, he was appointed to HMS ROVER as First Lieutenant on 15 February 1938 and later to HMS PHOENIX also as First Lieutenant on 1 October that same year.

He returned home on 5 July 1940, appointed to HMS DOLPHIN for the Commanding Officers Qualifying Course (COQC), where his ‘Teacher’ was Lieutenant Commander H P de C Steel.  On successful completion of the course, he joined the Submarine Depot Ship HMS MAIDSTONE (3rd Submarine Flotilla) at Rosyth on 11 Sep 40 before joining HMS TITANIA (3rd Submarine Flotilla) at Rosyth ‘for Submarines’ on 13 October.  He then moved to the Depot Ship HMS CYCLOPS (7th Submarine Flotilla) at Rothesay for HMS H50, in Command, on 11 November.

Michael was next appointed to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS FORTH (2nd Submarine Flotilla) at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in command of HMS TALISMAN in March 1941.  The submarine subsequently transferred to the 1st Submarine Flotilla based on HMS MEDWAY at Alexandria in the Mediterranean.  Michael was promoted to Lieutenant Commander on 11 August 1941, and on 1 December, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) ‘for five Mediterranean Patrols’ – the award being published in the London Gazette dated 12 May 1942.  HMS TALISMAN was subsequently transferred to the 8th Submarine Flotilla based on the Submarine Depot Ship HMS MAIDSTONE at Gibraltar

HMS TALISMAN sailed from Gibraltar on 10 September 1942 heading for Malta where she was due on 18 September 1942.  There was a report of a sighting of a U-boat off the Algerian coastline on 14 September, but there was no further contact from the submarine after that date.  HMS TALISMAN is presumed to have been lost to an Italian minefield off Sicily on 17 September.

Michael Willmott was the husband of Marjorie Eleanor Frances Willmott (née Roberts) of Priestlands, Sherborne, in Dorset.  They had been married in Sturminster in Dorset in June 1940.  He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval War Memorial on Panel No. 61 Column No. 3, and on the Little Kingshill War Memorial, in Buckinghamshire.