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 John Pimlott, the head of war studies at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, had been trying to identify the shell and probably had not realised that it was still live.

 It exploded in his hands, sending one piece of shrapnel into his heart. The inquest at Woking, Surrey, was told that if that splinter of metal had not pierced his heart he would probably have survived.

 His wife, Margaret, was suffering from a heavy cold and was in a deep sleep at the time of the blast. It was not until the next morning that she discovered her husband lying dead in the sitting room at their home in Camberley, Surrey.

 She told police that she had gone to bed after her husband went to his study at 9.45pm on Oct 23.  She said in a statement: "I was suffering from an extremely heavy cold. I heard nothing at all during the night. I woke up in the morning and John was not in bed. I went downstairs and found him lying on the floor in the living room by the door with blood all around him."

 At first it was believed that the device had been brought back as a souvenir from recent trips to the battlefields of the Somme and El Alamein.  But Mr Pimlott, a specialist in counter insurgency and counter terrorism who had written several books on warfare, probably bought the shell in a junk shop or car boot sale.

 Gary Sheffield, a fellow Sandhurst lecturer, had accompanied Mr Pimlott to the battlefields but was not aware of him bringing home anything other than pieces of shrapnel and barbed wire.

 An expert in explosives and firearms injuries, Dr Richard Shepherd, from St George's Hospital, London, said Mr Pimlott had injuries from his chest to his chin.  "A vital piece of shrapnel was in his heart and it is quite possible he would have survived had it not stuck in there," he said.  "He was obviously holding the device in his left hand and was standing over it when it went off."

 Michael Burgess, the coroner for Surrey, recorded a verdict of accidental death.