Schools
Remembering Wolsey How John Blatchly ensured that his school legacy lives on Between 1862 and 1961, six out of the eight Archbishops of Canterbury were former Headmasters – Charles Longley (Harrow), Archibald Tait (Rugby), Edward Benson (Wellington College), Frederick Temple (Rugby again), William Temple (Repton) and Geoffrey Fisher (Repton too). It is often and wrongly said John Blatchly that Basil Hume had been Headmaster of Ampleforth where he was Abbot for 13 years before he became Archbishop of Westminster, but one of his predecessors, Cardinal Hinsley, had been a Headmaster, founding and then leading St Bede’s Grammar School in Bradford at the turn of the 20th century. By far the most famous Englishman to be a Headmaster and an Archbishop was, of course, Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey. He was a major European statesman and his fame went beyond this island in his lifetime and thereafter. ‘KING’S MOLL RENO’D IN WOLSEY’S HOME TOWN’ bawled the Chicago Sun Times when Mrs Wallis Simpson was granted
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a decree nisi in Ipswich in October 1936. Although it was historically a little tactless to mention Wolsey, royalty and a divorce in the same line of print, it nevertheless remains the remarkable fact that the newspaper assumed that its readers would know who Wolsey was and where he had been born. John Blatchly, editor of Conference & Common Room from 1987 to 1992, who died in September 2015, was a major figure in East Anglian historical circles. Headmaster of Ipswich School from 1972 to 1993, he enjoyed more than 21 of extraordinarily fulfilling retirement in the town. School archivist, chairman of the Suffolk Records Society and Ipswich Historic Churches, he was also honorary Wolsey Professor at University Campus Suffolk (UCS), a fitting title for a man who, like Wolsey, saw education in its widest context. UCS may perhaps be seen as the modern heir of Wolsey’s great plans for his birthplace and John Blatchly was a polymath who would have been entirely at home in Wolsey’s company. A distinguished scientist and musician, John wrote many publications about the local history of Ipswich and Suffolk and one of his late books was the delightfully quirky Booke of Divers Devices and Sorts of Pictures compiled by Thomas Fella between 1592 and 1598. His efforts were by no means confined to the literary. His dynamic commitment carried two marvellous projects to fruition in the town – the statue of Thomas Wolsey and the restoration of the bells of St Lawrence.
Spring 2016
*CCR Vol53 no1 Spring 2016.indd 40
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