My father, Brian Grace, who has died aged 88, overcame early disadvantages to forge a life revolving around his family, his work as an engineering inspector, and the betting shop – not always in that order.

The son of Fred Grace, a bus driver with London Transport, and Lillian (nee Turpin), an advertising model, Brian was born in Battersea, south-west London, with disabilities that required a series of operations on his leg and foot.

Many of his early memories involved hospitals. He remembered, too, being taken aged seven to stand outside St Thomas’ hospital, where his mother was also being treated (for an acute thyroid condition), so she could wave to him from a window – children were not allowed as visitors. He did not realise, but it was the last time he would see her alive.

Brian attended local schools in Battersea and then Wimbledon but during the blitz his intended secondary school was requisitioned by the fire service and students were sent their work at home. He worked in his grandfather’s shop and had a Saturday job for a steel fabrication company, squeezing inside sections of pontoon bridges – submerged in a huge water tank – checking for leaks.

Brian was apprenticed to a plumber, but in 1949 he followed his older brother, Fred Jr, into the RAF, where, despite his earlier physical limitations, he joined the squadron tug-of-war team (which enjoyed extra rations) and found himself with a better diet than he had ever known. He met Jane Williamsat a dance in Nottingham, while on leave. After three dates, the couple became engaged and married at the end of May 1953, claiming as their own the bunting being hung for the coronation a week later.

Lacking formal education, Brian often relied on wit, charm and a characteristic optimism. On leaving the RAF in 1956, he spotted a vacancy for a machine operator; the post had been filled, so he enquired about the position of inspector.

He was asked if he could use measuring equipment, and since he had used a ruler, said “yes”. Many years as an engineering inspector followed, at Ericcson in Beeston, Nottinghamshire, at Jardines, then Paul Fabrications, both in Draycott, Derbyshire, and finally at Bemrose in Spondon, Derbyshire, where he worked in the quality control lab until he retired.

My father loved a flutter on the “gee-gees”, and even had the occasional win. While he waited for “the big one”, he worked hard to provide for his family. All will remember him walking to the bookies in his flat cap and overcoat – a vision reflected in his collection of LS Lowry pictures and prints.

In his last three years, this collection grew to cover the walls of the mobile home in Breaston, Derbyshire, that he shared with Jane.

She survives him as do their four children, Deborah, Louise, Finlay and me, 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.