Tributes paid to former Darlington mayor and campaigning councillor

Marian Swift only intended to serve on Darlington council for a couple of years to complete the work of her husband, Barry, who had died suddenly, but once she was elected she immersed herself in health and community work for 16 years.

Darlington Mayor Councillor Marian Swift in 2007 with children from Corporation Road Juniors: from left Hannah Moss Carbert , Ali Bari , Carla Bradley and Ben Firth

Born in Kent in 1950, she spent part of her childhood in Libya and Malta as her father was in the RAF. She qualified as a nurse where she met Barry and when he got a job at Darlington Memorial Hospital, he brought her back to his native Tees Valley.

“Little did I know when I first stepped into Darlington in 1983 that I would be standing here as its first citizen,” she said when she became mayor in 2007.

Her daughter, Jenny Chapman who was the town’s MP for nine years, said: “My dad was always the political one and he stood twice in the Pierremont ward. She was involved but never with strident views.”

Darlington mayor Marian Swift, left, and her escort, Councillor Jenny Chapman, on the mayor's golf charity day in 2007

Barry died at the age of 48 in 1994, and Marian managed to complete his campaigning by winning the ward the following year.

“We thought Barry would become a councillor but with a bit of arm twisting we persuaded her to stand for just one term,” said former Labour leader Bill Dixon. “After a year, I asked if she would be standing again and she said ‘too right I am’.

“She was a first class councillor involved in some really cutting edge policies, particularly around breast feeding. Everyone associates her with adult social care work, but she was really active with young mothers as well.”

Current Labour leader Steve Harker, who was first elected with her in Pierremont in 1995, said: “Once elected, Marian found being a councillor interesting and challenging, and she served until 2011. She was an NHS nurse, and so it was natural that her council work often focussed on social care and public health. She led a review into breastfeeding, making it easier for mothers to breastfeed, and improving the health of young children.

“She was fantastic: a very good friend, and a hard-working councillor.”

National Breast Feeding week in 2007 and Darlington Mayor Marian Swift is pictured on the town hall steps with the Darlington breast feeding awareness group and their knitted boobs

She was also ward sister on elderly care wards at the Memorial and Greenbank hospitals.

Her best friend, Jan Taylor, who was mayor in 2018, said: “We shared Christmases and holidays, and I remember her sense of fun, and how proud she was of her children and grandchildren.

“She was also proud of the major policy change she brought in at the hospital where there were far too many elderly people, like my aunt, who were stuck in the hospital setting for years so she tried to move them into residential care. She always felt she had done a good day’s work if she had helped someone in that way.”

Marian Swift, as chair of the social services committee, gets work under way at the Willow Road community centre in 1998

For her year as mayor, she had her daughter, Jenny, who is now Baroness Chapman of Darlington, as her escort, and she raised money for health charities and promoted health causes, like breast feeding.

After stepping down in 2011, she married Keith Bruce and moved to Tyneside, which is where she died after a short illness.

She leaves her children, Jenny and Robert, who lives in Bristol, and four grandchildren: Edward, Daniel, Silva and Hazel. Her funeral is at Tynemouth crematorium, North Shields, on Monday at 12.45.

“Darlington was the place she lived longest in her life, where she brought her kids up. Darlington was her home,” said Jenny. “She loved the town and was very proud to be mayor. It was a real honour.”

Dame Tanni Grey Thompson talks to mayor Marian Swift at the Darlington Volunteering Awards in 2007