Ipswich High School – The Ganzoni Connection

Last week a memorial service was held at Great Bealings church for The Honorable Jill Ganzoni, the last member of a prominent Suffolk family, who died in April 2022 aged 91.

Jill Ganzoni was a great friend to Ipswich High School and her family was part of our school’s family for generations. Jill’s mother, Gwendoline, was an Old Girl and her father, Sir John Ganzoni, Lord Belstead, was a keen supporter of the school, distributing prizes at our prize-giving ceremonies and giving speeches at important school occasions even before Jill’s birth in 1931.
The Ganzoni family’s loyalty and patronage was longstanding, with Jill joining the school governing body in 1973, later becoming Chair of the Governors in 1994, and proving a solid and dependable support to successive Headteachers, Miss Hayworth and Miss MacCuish. She witnessed the school’s centenary in 1978 and celebrations for its 125th birthday in 2003, watching our every success for four decades. Jill was a familiar and friendly face to the girls of Ipswich High School, joining us for assemblies and taking a keen interest in pupils’ academic and personal development.

We will be forever indebted to the kindness and assistance extended to us by Jill, her brother and parents. Her family supported the building of the school pool at Westerfield road, with her brother, the second Lord Belstead opening it officially in 1975, and in 2003, three years before she retired from her position as Head of Governors, Jill enabled us to open our beautiful pool at Woolverstone Hall, fittingly named the Ganzoni pool.

It is thanks to her and her family that we have a beautiful Steinway piano, and such a wonderful suite of cookery and practical rooms, named after her father and brother. We owe an enormous debt to Jill and appreciate that the contribution she made to our school community is something which our staff and students still benefit from to this day.