At "Stalag Luft III" (SLIII), near Sagan, Silesia (now Żagań, Poland), Wilson reportedly assisted in a successful escape, which one of the escapees, Flight Lieutenant Eric Williams (RAF), later recounted in a book that became a popular film adaptation:"The Wooden Horse" (1950). The even more famous "Great Escape" of March 1944, which took place in another compound at SLIII, did not involve Wilson. However, he succeeded Gp Capt. Herbert Massey as the Senior British Officer (SBO) at SLIII soon afterwards. On 17 April 1944, Wilson surreptitiously passed to an official visitor from the Swiss Red Cross a list, compiled by other POWs, giving the names of 47 Allied personnel whom POWs believed had been murdered following the Great Escape by the "Gestapo". It was later established that 50 Allied POWs were shot on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler. (Wilson would later gave statements to war crimes prosecutors regarding these and other events.) After the camp was liberated, two former POWs who had been convicted of collaborating with German authorities made similar accusations against Wilson. He was not charged after the British Judge Advocate General found that no offence had been committed. In October 1945, after returning to Australia, Wilson was appointed commander of Western Area RAAF in Perth. He tendered his resignation from the RAAF on 1 February 1946 and was placed on the Retired List on 20 March. In 1949, Wilson was awarded the Czechoslovakian "Válečný kříž 1939–1945" ("War Cross 1939–1945"; sometimes referred to as the "Czechoslovakian Military Cross"), for interceding on behalf of Free Czechoslovakian POWs at "Stalag Luft III". He retired to a property at Glen Alvie, near Ebor in northern New South Wales. Wilson died, following an illness, at Concord Hospital, Sydney on 2 August 1950. Wilson was buried near his parents, in the Anglican section of Lithgow cemetery.