My mother, Margaret Toner, who has died aged 88, found a new direction in her 60s when she went back to school to study history and English, and then spent 10 years volunteering for the National Trust, guiding visitors around its preserved Tenement House in Glasgow.

Margaret was born in Cambuslang, Glasgow, to Frank Brannan, a blacksmith, and Rose (nee McGill). She lived with her parents and two brothers in Flemington until her mum died of peritonitis when Margaret was 12. Around 1944 it was decided that the family should go and live with Rose’s sister, Famie, in Cambuslang, and so began an incredibly happy period in Margaret’s life.

She attended St Bride’s school, Cambuslang, leaving at the age of 14 to train as an audio typist. She worked for the Mavor and Coulson machinery company in Glasgow from the mid 1940s to mid 50s, then worked in the Co-operative shoe shop in Rutherglen.

She always had a full social life, playing badminton and netball, going to dance halls and the cinema. She saw Hollywood stars – Danny Kaye, Gene Kelly, Laurel and Hardy and many others – at the variety theatres in Glasgow.

She met Liam Toner, a rent officer, at a dance; they married in 1956 and went on to have two children, Jim and me.

In 1971 our family moved to East Kilbride and Mum met a whole new bunch of friends through the Young Mothers’ Club. She and Liam had a busy social life with St Bride’s Church and were involved in local organisations. For many years she organised local events for the Women’s World Day of Prayer. She was always busy with something.

In the 1990s she found a new love in history and architecture. She took a history class at Claremont high school, and passed her Higher English. She had always loved reading although she left school so young. She then worked as a volunteer for the National Trust in Glasgow, running tours in the 19th-century Tenement House.

She also loved cinema and theatre and would go to see everything from light opera to Tony Benn book tours. She was an avid letter writer – to Michelle Obama and Prince Charles, among others.

Liam died in 2016. Margaret is survived by Jim and me, by her grandchildren, Katy, Daniel, Joseph, Sarah and Walter, and by her brother, Frank.