John Blatchly, a highly respected and much loved former Headmaster of Ipswich School, and Suffolk historian extraordinaire died on 3rd September 2015 after a short illness.
Whilst I would be the last person chosen to write his obituary, I have no hesitation in offering this tribute on behalf of The Cobbold Family History Trust.
From my very first contact John was immediately helpful and he remained continuously supportive. He forgave some early mistakes and answered my questions fully and willingly, sensing my limited experience. Amongst many act of kindness John gave the Trust an original watercolour painting of the Wilkinson coat of arms and copies of many Cobbold bookplates. He facilitated our purchase of the Ipswich New Town Hall Polka dedicated to Mrs J Patteson Cobbold (1868) and wrote the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entries on Elizabeth Cobbold, Rev. Richard Cobbold and Margaret Catchpole.
I well remember my joy when he agreed to write the Foreword for Cobbold & Kin, Life Stories from an East Anglian Family. It turned to excitement when he told me that he knew one of the subjects well; my second cousin, Nicholas Hammond who had been a Kitchener Scholar at my Cambridge College, Gonville and Caius. John wrote ‘The first headmaster to interview me for a Chemistry post in 1957 was N. G. L. Hammond of Clifton. He carried my case to my room, a practice which I have tried to emulate since.’
I invited John and his wife Pam to come to the reopening of Holywells Park one Saturday this July. They were well enough to come on the Sunday and they sat comfortably in the warm conservatory and chatted freely with us. It was a half hour of peaceful contented friendliness which has left me with the happiest of memories.
