Habitat founder's gun death

ONE OF THE founders of the Habitat chain of shops died in a shotgun accident at his home, an inquest was told yesterday.

Oliver Gregory, 62, the designer and architect who developed the Habitat style with co-founder Sir Terence Conran, died on 23 November when he slipped on wet grass as he shot at birds which were preying on doves in a dovecote at his home at Collingbourne Ducis, Wiltshire. Dr Christine Scott, a pathologist, told the inquest at Salisbury that Mr Gregory died of gunshot wounds to the head.

Recording a verdict of misadventure, John Elgar, the Wiltshire coroner, said that either the gun fired when Mr Gregory slipped and fell, or he slipped before firing at a target and the gun went off as he fell.