The Army often uses Oman for training

Juliet Wood was deemed ineligible to receive a war widow's pension by the Ministry of Defence because she and Sergeant Kevin Butterton were not married at the time of his death.

Ms Wood, 36, who lives with the couple's two children, faced an uncertain future after her fianc� was killed in the desert training exercise last year

The couple lived in an army house in Hereford, where the elite regiment are based, for more than five years and were planning to get married last May.

Sergeant Butterton, 33, who was born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, was killed after a live-fire exercise when he was hit in the head by shrapnel from a mortar shell.

Ms Wood was flown out to his bedside in Oman but he died a few days later.

"Elite soldier"

An inquest heard that the "elite soldier of some calibre" had died because of a communications mix-up between two SAS mortar operators.

But although the rules have been changed to allow unmarried partners of troops killed in combat to receive the equivalent of a war widow's pension, the partners of serviceman who have died in uniform in accidents or other means still get nothing.

That meant Ms Wood looked unlikely to receive the annual pension of between �15,000 and �25,000 a year she would have been paid if the couple had been married.

The �500,000 award is believed to include the pension and benefits Ms Wood would have been entitled to had she married her fianc�.