William Webb Ellis

William Webb Ellis was a moderate cricketer whose only first-class appearance came in the 1827 Varsity match - the inaugural contest - when he made 12 runs. But he is better known as the man who is alleged to have invented rugby when he "picked up the ball and ran" during a football practice at Rugby School in 1823. The story is almost certainly apocryphal, and Webb Ellis himself knew nothing about it as it wasn't mentioned until 1876, four years after his death.

After coming down from Oxford, Webb Ellis entered the Church and became chaplain of St George's, Albemarle Street, London and then rector of St Clement Danes in the Strand. In 1855 he became rector of Laver Magdalen in Essex. He died in the south of France in 1872 and he is buried at Mentone.
Martin Williamson