My role was to liaise with journalists
Entrance to Swan Hunter’s, Wallsend,
After I graduated from university in Newcastle I stayed in the area. I worked for a PR firm and one of our clients was Swan Hunter. They were building Type 22 frigates, so my role was to liaise with journalists. In those days the dress code was very different, and we were expected to wear skirts and high heels, not such a thing as trouser suits in those days. It was really a case of taking journalists out onto the sites taking them up construction areas and ladders and wearing a good pair of high heels.
I think it was just something you had to deal with in those days, you were just as professional as you possibly could be and making sure that the journalists you were looking after got everything that they needed to talk about the yard and actually developing business for it because it was trying to regenerate the area.
I think it was really in the 1990s that dress codes really started to change. In those days you didn’t want to offend clients by possibly going out wearing trousers when you’re a woman.
Some of it was trade, some of it was very much on the political side as well because Swan Hunter had been bought back out, so they were trying to generate new contracts for the yard. When I was there it was HMS Sheffield and Coventry and there was a landing ship logistic which was Sir Galahad, which was being built. It was a gang of four I think they were called at that time, who had bought out the yard again. So it was a very exciting time.
Diane was interviewed in 2025 as part of the Women in Shipbuilding project.