John Blatchly


Dr. John Marcus Blatchly MBE FSA was a schoolmaster, author and noted historian of the county of Suffolk.
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.
A keen local historian, he also served as chairman of the Suffolk Records Society, president of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History and chairman of the Ipswich Historic Churches Trust. He was awarded an MBE in 2006 for services to heritage and was elected honorary Wolsey Professor at University Campus Suffolk in 2014.
The John Blatchly Local Studies Library is a planned facility at The Hold, a new facility being built in Ipswich by the Suffolk Record Office to be opened in 2020.

Selected publications