During the course of her travels, my mother, Margaret Knox, who has died aged 93, immersed herself in the culture of the countries she and her husband, Andrew, lived in.

In Nigeria she set up one of the first primary schools in her area and went on to carry out humanitarian work during the Biafran conflict. Later, in Fiji, she produced English-language textbooks aimed at an island audience. In retirement she wrote a guide to Norfolk and a book on Suffolk cheeses.

She was born in the village of Southrepps, north Norfolk, to William Allen, a postmaster, and his wife, Ellen (nee Gray). Educated locally at North Walsham high school for girls, Margaret was the first girl in Norfolk to win county and state scholarships to university, and she moved to Leeds to study English in 1946. It was about this time that she converted to Catholicism.

She later took a job as a cub reporter for the Eastern Daily Press, and it was on an assignment for the newspaper that she met Andrew Knox, who was working in the town clerk’s office, in Southwold, Suffolk. They married in 1951.

In 1956, Andrew got a job in Zaria in northern Nigeria, helping to establish the new Ahmadu Bello University. They stayed for 18 years, apart from a two-year secondment to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. To occupy herself, Margaret set up a primary school in Zaria, and allowed her four children to have a menagerie of exotic pets, including a monkey, a secretary bird, a duiker, a type of antelope, and a hyrax, a small furry mammal.

The family’s time in Nigeria came to an end in 1967, during the civil war. Andrew’s role in rescuing many people belonging to the minority Igbo tribe, including several members of his own staff, was recognised when he was appointed OBE. Margaret also showed resourcefulness and bravery crossing army lines to ensure people had enough food and other essentials.

Later that year, Andrew moved the family to Suva, Fiji, where he was appointed bursar of the newly established University of the South Pacific. This was to be their home for 12 years. Once again, Margaret immersed herself in local causes, writing the textbooks Fiji: The Land and the People (1970), and Pacific Island Neighbours (1971). They are still in print today. She also wrote The Green Book for Fiji for the World Wildlife Fund, and her researches into the early Catholic missions resulted in Voyage of Faith: The Story of the Catholic Church in Fiji, published in 1997.

By this time the family had returned to Britain, first to Norwich, then in 1991 to Beccles in Suffolk. There she produced a Shire guide to Norfolk and a monograph Suffolk Cheese (2002), and helped reorganise the local museum. After Andrew died in 2003, Margaret moved to Grassington, North Yorkshire.

Her daughter Angie died in 2015. Margaret is survived by her children Andrew (Dom), Tina and me, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.