North Tyneside shipbuilder honoured with a blue plaque on Trafalgar Day

A naval architect who blazed a trail for women in the shipbuilding industry has been honoured with a blue plaque at her family home in Tynemouth.

Susan Mary Auld (10 January 1915 – 9 March 2002) was born Susan Denham Christie into a family of naval engineers.

She was home-schooled until the age of 14 and later followed in her family’s footsteps by becoming the first woman to be awarded a degree in naval architecture from Durham University in 1936.  

Her grandfather founded the company that would become Swan Hunter and she joined the design office of what was then Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson at the Neptune yard, Wallsend, at a time when very few women were employed in shipbuilding.

During the Second World War she was a member of the team that designed the battleship HMS Anson, launched in 1940, and the aircraft carrier HMS Albion. She also worked on the design of vessels used to land Allied troops at Normandy in June 1944

In 1942 she was referred to as ‘the only woman ship designer in the country’ in the pages of The Woman Engineer, the journal of the Women's Engineering Society.

On Trafalgar Day, Friday 21 October at 1.30pm, North Tyneside Council and heritage charity The Common Room unveiled a blue plaque to honour her life and achievements at 12 Northumberland Terrace in Tynemouth.

The plaque was unveiled by North Tyneside’s Elected Mayor Norma Redfearn CBE and the Chair of North Tyneside Council, Councillor Pat Oliver, alongside representatives from HMS Calliope following an earlier engagement at the Trafalgar Day ‘Toast the Admiral’ event in Tynemouth.

North Tyneside’s Elected Mayor, Norma Redfearn CBE, said: “It’s very fitting that we can bring people together on Trafalgar Day to celebrate Susan’s life and achievements. Her ideas and designs brought about important advances in shipbuilding technology that helped turn the tide of the Second World War.

“At a time when it was considered bad luck for a woman to even set foot on a ship that was under construction, she helped to pave the way for other women to forge careers in both the shipbuilding industry and the military.

“The blue plaque is a token of how much she means to us in North Tyneside and a reminder to future generations of an extraordinary woman whose work broke down barriers and inspired others to follow in her footsteps.”

The Common Room is a charity formed to lead the restoration of Neville Hall in Newcastle, whose vision is to use the region’s unique heritage to inspire the next generation of innovators and engineers. On behalf of Newcastle University, The Common Room is helping to place five blue plaques in the next year to honour women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) who have not yet had their astonishing local contributions recognised with a plaque.

Joshua Ansell, Programme Team, The Common Room, said: “Women like Susan Mary Auld have fought just to be able to stand as part of a group that was previously occupied wholly by men. They have had to prove themselves to be given permission just to be there. History often forgets them, because their name isn’t recorded as the head of a team, but they have often done far more than those leaders just to be included. We are proud to be part of the effort to celebrate and remember great women like this as they are given the recognition they have always deserved.”