The death of Eugenie Dunn, 83, was traced back to the time she travelled to the war-torn city in the 1940s and apparently swallowed deadly asbestos.

A Royal Lancaster Infirmary pathologist told an inquest that Mrs Dunn, who had almost always worked in offices, had "most likely" ingested asbestos and it could have come from eating food while in a bomb-damaged building during her time in the German capital.

At the Lancaster Coroner's Court hearing, Dr Bianca Da Gama-Rose said: "Asbestos causes illness at least 25 years down the line so it is more likely it was when she was younger."

Dr Da Gama-Rose said the post-mortem she had carried out on Mrs Dunn, who died last October at Lancaster's St John's Hospice, in Slyne Road, showed fluid and tumours in her abdomen.

She said asbestos was almost always breathed in but the results suggested Mrs Dunn, of Piccadilly, Lancaster, had ingested, or swallowed, the deadly chemical instead.

Earlier, Mrs Dunn's son Roland had told the inquest his mother had been in good health until January 2007, when she was diagnosed with asbestos exposure.

She was born in Germany in 1937 but left with her family to live in London. However, she returned to Berlin after the war for relief work.

She later lived again in London, the United States and Canada before working as a probation officer and then as a lecturer at Preston Polytechnic and Lancaster University.

Mr Dunn said his mother's working life had been almost exclusively office-based and he was not aware of any exposure to asbestos.

Carolyn Singleton, the assistant deputy coroner for Preston and West Lancashire, said: "What an interesting life your mother led.

"She sounded like the kind of lady I would have loved to have sat down with and had a chat. She clearly led a very full and fascinating life."

Recording a narrative verdict, Mrs Singleton said Mrs Dunn had died from a malignant mesothelioma of the peritoneum caused by asbestos.