John Blatchly

Dr. John Marcus Blatchly MBE FSA (7 October 1932 – 3 September 2015) was a schoolmaster, author and noted historian of the county of Suffolk.[1][2][3]

Life

The son of Alfred Ernest Blatchly and Edith Selina Giddings, he studied natural sciences at the University of Cambridge and became a chemistry teacher. From 1972 to 1993 he was headmaster of Ipswich School in Suffolk. After retiring, he served as the school's archivist emeritus and published a history of the school.^[citation needed]

A keen local historian, he also served as chairman of the Suffolk Records Society and the Ipswich Historic Churches Trust, and president of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History.[4] Blatchly's heritage work included rescuing and cataloguing Ipswich's 16th-century library and leading efforts to erect a bronze statue of Cardinal Wolsey in the town.[1] His passionate interest in Wolsey and in Cardinal's College in Ipswich was reflected in his election in 2014 as Honorary Wolsey Professor at University Campus Suffolk.

Photographs by Blatchly are held at the Conway Library of the Courtauld Institute in London.[5]

Honours and recognition

Blatchly was awarded an MBE in 2006 for services to heritage.^[citation needed]

In 2021 Suffolk Record Office opened a purpose-built heritage centre in Ipswich and named the reference library the John Blatchly Local Studies Library in his honour.[6]

Selected publications

• Isaac Johnson of Woodbridge, 1754–1835: that ingenious artist (1979)
• Topographers of Suffolk (1988)
• The Town Library of Ipswich Provided for the Use of the Town Preachers in 1599: A History and Catalogue (1989)
• The Bookplates of Edward Gordon Craig (1997)
• The Bookplates of George Wolfe Plank, and a Selection of his Book Illustrations (2002)
• A Famous Antient Seed-plot of Learning: A History of Ipswich School (2003)
• East-Anglian Ex-Libris: Bookplates and Labels Made Between 1700 and the Present Day (2008)
• Ipswich School: A History in Old Photographs from the 1850s to the 1980s (2009)
• Miracles in Lady Lane: The Ipswich Shrine at the Westgate (2013), with Diarmaid MacCulloch

References

1. Gray, Victor (5 November 2015). "John Blatchly obituary | Education". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
2. Lynne Mortimer. "Former Ipswich headmaster, author and historian John Blatchly dies at the age of 82 | Latest Suffolk and Essex News". East Anglian Daily Times. Archived from the original on 27 April 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
3. "John Blatchly". ipswich.school. Archived from the original on 27 April 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
4. "Tribute to Dr Blatchly". Ipswich Historic Churches Trust. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
5. "Who made the Conway Library?". Digital Media. 30 June 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
6. "Suffolk Record Office and The Hold". Waterfront Life. Retrieved 24 December 2019.