Visiting Senior Fellow in History
School of Arts and Humanities
John Blatchly read Natural Sciences at Cambridge (1951-54) and after a short service commission in the Instructor Branch, Royal Navy, ran the science departments of three schools in succession, teaching Chemistry while also taking a active part in Music as oboist, pianist, organist, singer and conductor. In 1965 he was the first chemist to be awarded a Cambridge PhD on submission of a dozen publications of original work in organic chemistry carried out with the assistance of his sixth-formers in their school laboratories. [Chiefly synthesis of Biphenylenes and Thiele-Winter acetoxylation of quinones.] Over the years he became interested in local history and was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1976.
He came to Ipswich in 1972 and was for the next 21 years Head of Ipswich School. In the Headmaster's Conference he became Hon Treasurer and was for six years editor of the house journal Conference & Common Room. In 1993 he was made LittD honoris causa for services to history and education in East Anglia at the University of East Anglia. For six years at UEA he chaired the advisory committee of the Centre for East Anglian Studies. For seven years he led teams to inspect leading English independent schools, and for the next five was a member of the Committee of the Heritage Lottery Fund in the East of England.
For 26 years he was president of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, and hopes to complete 25 years as chairman of the Suffolk Records Society in 2013, for which society he edited volumes on D E Davy's Suffolk Excursions 1823-44 and John Kirby's Roadbooks and Maps. Since 1993 he has chaired the Ipswich Historic Churches Trust, caring for five of the town's six redundant medieval churches, all but one of which now have excellent permanent uses. He is a Udo Ivask Laureate and Medallist of the International Federation of Ex Libris Societies for outstanding contributions to bookplate scholarship. He contributed 56 articles on notable East Anglians to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for which he was made a Research Associate of the project. His weekly whole page articles on Suffolk History appear every Saturday in the East Anglian Daily Times - 330 so far. With the support of his fellow Wolsey Project patrons in little more than 18 months he raised the cost of a bronze statue commemorating Thomas Wolsey here in his birthplace (which now stands in Curson Plain). He is an occasional contributor to documentaries on BBC2, BBC4 and BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Suffolk.
He has been an active and valued supporter of History at UCS from its inception and regularly contributes his time, expertise and advice to students and staff alike.