Muriel McCann | | The Guardian

Muriel McCann

The life of our mother, Muriel McCann, who has died aged 80, was characterised by service to others, love of her family, and a great sense of fun.

Born in Sheffield, an only child, she went to boarding school in Staffordshire, and in 1943, aged 17, joined the Wrens. The experience, which included a posting to Sri Lanka, transformed her from a shy, bookish girl into a confident woman, and she discovered a lifelong love of parties and travel. After the war she read English at Cambridge, rowed for the university and became president of the women's boat club. She then took a diploma in social science at the London School of Economics, though it was never clear to her family whether it was academic work or rowing for London University that appealed most. Throughout her life she was an avid reader who could quote considerable passages of classics and poetry with ease.

Muriel embarked on a social work career with the family service units in Birmingham and then Liverpool, providing practical and emotional support to families in the poorest areas of the inner cities, and it was in Liverpool, in 1955, that she met and married Joe McCann. After having six children, she taught scripture at Birkenhead girls' high school.

In retirement, Muriel did voluntary work for 20 years with the Citizens' Advice Bureau in Birkenhead, specialising in disability living allowance claims, for which she was awarded an MBE in 2003.

Muriel's faith was important to her. She was brought up an Anglican but converted to Catholicism. Her Anglican education ensured she understood the scriptures better than many of her Catholic friends (and priests), and she led many discussion groups, sharing her knowledge with others. With her friend Marie O'Brien, she set up a monthly collection at her local church, which raised many thousands of pounds for the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (Cafod) and local charities.

In the 1940s Muriel travelled round France and Italy with a friend, often sleeping in the luggage racks of trains to avoid paying for hotel rooms. In 1971 she and Joe took their children on a camping holiday to France, where the sight of an English family erecting a huge tent often drew a small crowd. These expeditions became regular events and Muriel's last holiday, last June, when her health was already failing, was to a campsite in France which she and Joe, who died in 2003, had visited annually for many years. She is survived by her children and nine grandchildren.

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