In 2005, Wilson was awarded the annual Abu Dhabi Award for his services to the country. After a brief illness, he died on 2 January 2009, two weeks short of his 88th birthday. He married Patricia Valentine (née McLeary) in 1971. She predeceased him. They had one son. Wilson's photographs of Abu Dhabi, the Colonel Edward "Tug" Bearby Wilson Collection, are now held in the collection of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage.