Good turnout for Giles event at Quay Place, Ipswich

There was a good turnout for a special Giles event, organised by the Rotary Club of Ipswich Orwell, last Saturday.

The presentation, by local expert John Field, was about the life and work of Carl Giles - once voted the country’s favourite cartoonist.

Giles, the Express cartoonist, first came to Ipswich to draw in a cartoon studio, and had worked as a war artist and then his fame grew in the national press.

His annual collections became a mainstay of Christmas stockings each year, covering the social and political stories of the year, and finding the humour in them.

John told of Giles’ life in Ipswich, and how he used local people and locations in his cartoons.

His studio was in Ipswich, overlooking what is now Giles Circus, near Barclays Bank.

He made “grandma” an Ipswich Town fan during Bobby Robson’s time as the Town manager too.

John began the evening by explaining the importance of the multi-million pound project to save the former St Mary Quay church, and its many historic features.

The Waterfront church had survived the Second World War, when a German bomb had dropped into it but never exploded.

Then later when there were moves to demolish it - because it was said Ipswich had too many historic churches.

But it was saved, and now it is a community facility, run by the Suffolk Mind charity, following its major restoration.

For many of the visitors it was their first time to see what had been achieved.

It really is a stunning building and it is open to the public, and available for events and activities.

The Orwell Rotary Club event was in aid of two projects in Africa, a nursery school project in Zanzibar, the Ipswich Hospital - Beira Hospital Project, and Suffolk Mind.