Tom Selvester, the Scot who as a young Army officer captured Heinrich Himmler in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, has died in hospital in Edinburgh at the age of 88.

When Tom confronted the once-powerful Nazi figure after separating him from two burly men, clearly bodyguards, whom soldiers from his Pioneer Corps unit had arrested, the man chillingly announced: ''Ich bin Herr Heinrich Himmler,'' words which remained with the retired police inspector for the rest of his life. But the twice-widowed father-of-three was a true gentleman and shy hero, and it was not until the 50th anniversary of the event that he talked publicly of how he nailed Reichsfuhrer Himmler.

At the time of his momentous part in history, Tom was a Captain in charge of a civilian interrogation camp near Luneburg, 28 miles outside of Hamburg, with the purpose of weeding out Nazi war criminals from refugees and the homeless.

Three Germans, who had been picked up two days earlier at a bridge near Bremervorde, 36 miles North of Bremen, by British soldiers in the unit had been causing trouble and Tom called them into his spartan office.

It transpired that Himmler had not only escaped from the notorious Nazi high-command underground bunker in Berlin and evaded the lines of the encircling Russian Red Army, but in the two weeks following VE Day had managed to blend in with civilians and flee over 200 miles to the West in disguise in a postman's uniform.

Tom later recalled on the 50th anniversary of his unmasking Hitler's second in command at 2pm on May 23, 1945, that: ''The first man to come in was small, ill-looking with a patch over one eye. The other two were tall, well-built and soldier like''.

Tom ordered the German trio to be separated. Realising that the game was up, the small man removed his fake eye patch and announced who he was. Tom recalled: ''As soon as he took off the patch and put on his spectacles, I knew that I had netted a really big fish. When it sunk in that I had Himmler here in custody, a feeling of pure elation spread through me''.

The Scottish soldier then telephoned the British Second Army Surrender HQ at nearby Luneburg to tell them, but at first no-one would believe him. He was warned that he would be beaten to a pulp if he was joking, but was given orders, including putting an extra guard on Himmler. The top-ranking Nazi was then searched for poisonous phials, a suicide attempt being an obvious possibility in the circumstances.

They found two brass cases, one containing a glass phial, and the other was empty. They realised that the second small capsule must have been in Himmler's mouth, but did not want to make a move in case he swallowed it.

Himmler was then transferred to the Luneburg base, and it was there that Army medical officer Captain Jimmy Wells, an English GP in civilian life, asked him to open his mouth. As Wells tried to remove the phial, Himmler bit his hand hard and broke the phial. He subsequently fell unconscious and died at around midnight on the day that Tom had blown his cover.

Tom had two marriages, to May and Isa, and fathered three grown-up sons, George, Norman, and Kenneth. He also had two step-children, Elizabeth and Angus. He had good health, enjoying regular rounds of golf up until this year, before he was taken into hospital on June 22.

Old soldiers of the Normandy Veteran's Association and members of the Royal British Legion Scotland, were prominent in honouring Tom at his funeral service.

His civilian career was spent with the City of Salford Police, in Lancashire, where he reached the rank of Detective Inspector before retiring to his native Edinburgh.