Later Life
Wilson married Ann Pleydell-Bouverie in 1943. They had two sons. After they were divorced in 1953, Wilson married Angela Joy Gordon, and they had one son.
After Wilson left the Army in 1949, he joined the Overseas Civil Service in Tanganyika. He learned several African languages, and served in Tanganyika until independence of the British East African countries which led to his retirement in 1961.
In 1962 Wilson was appointed Deputy Warden of London House, a residence at Goodenough Square in the Bloomsbury district of London. This residence is for university graduates from the Commonwealth of Nations pursuing graduate studies in the United Kingdom. In 1966 Wilson was promoted to Warden of London House, holding the position until retirement in 1977. During his tenure the patron of the residence was HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
He retired to Stowell, Dorset. Until his death, he was one of only ten Victoria Cross recipients alive. He was the last surviving British Army recipient of World War II as well as being the earliest and oldest recipient. His VC is on display in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum, London.
He suffered from prostate cancer in later life, and died after a stroke. He was buried in Stowell, survived by his second wife and their son, and one son from his first marriage (the other son from his first marriage having died before him).
Read more about this topic: Eric Charles Twelves Wilson
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“I feel the desire to be with you all the time. Oh, an occasional absence of a week or two is a good thing to give one the happiness of meeting again, but this living apart is in all ways bad. We have had our share of separate life during the four years of war. There is nothing in the small ambition of Congressional life, or in the gratified vanity which it sometimes affords, to compensate for separation from you. We must manage to live together hereafter. I can’t stand this, and will not.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“As life runs on, the road grows strange
With faces new,—and near the end
The milestones into headstones change,
‘Neath every one a friend.”
—James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)