Eric Wilson, was the oldest living holder of the Victoria Cross

Fikirka Xorta ah - LONDON — A British World War II hero who fought in North Africa despite severe wounds has died 68 years after he was "posthumously" awarded the nation’s highest combat honor by officials who thought he had been killed.

Eric Wilson, 96, who had been the oldest living holder of the Victoria Cross, died Dec. 23 in Stowell, where he lived.

Mr. Wilson had been reported killed in North Africa in 1940, but was later found alive and trying to tunnel his way out of a prison camp.

His family was notified in August 1940 that he was killed while staying with his machine gun, though wounded and ill, in a futile effort to repel a larger Italian force. The Victoria Cross was awarded two months later. Mr. Wilson was commanding a company of the Somaliland Camel Corps when Italian forces attacked their position in what was then British Somaliland. Italy had declared war the day before.

Mr. Wilson later served in North Africa as adjutant of the Long Range Desert Group, a motorized force that harassed Italian positions; he later served in Burma as second-in-command of the 11th King’s African Rifles. Two years ago, Mr. Wilson said: "What is bravery? I don’t know. You just did what you had to do."