As the 6th Rugby World Cup tournament is getting closer, it is worth remembering the life and achievements of the man whose name is engraved on the event’s trophy, the Reverend William Webb Ellis. It was in 1987, a few months before the first RWC, that the International Rugby Board decided to name its main trophy after William Webb Ellis, the young English schoolboy, who started it all in 1823. This is even more poignant ,as Webb Ellis, who died in 1872, is buried in Menton, France, the host nation of the RWC07.
William Webb Ellis was born on November 24, 1806 in Salford, Lancashire, the second son of James Ellis, an officer with the Dragoon Guards and Ann Ellis, nee Webb, whom he had married at the Cathedral Church of St. Peter in Exeter in March 1804. Young William had an older brother, Thomas, who was two years his senior. In 1812, their father was killed in action in the battle near Albuera, during the Peninsula War.
Widowed on July 1st 1812, Ann Ellis decided to move to Rugby, in Warwickshire, where the two boys could receive a good education at Rugby School. As local foundationers (living within a 10 miles radius from the Rugby Town clock) the two orphans were eligible for free education at Rugby School, where they entered in September 1816. William who finished the school in 1825, was a very good student and a noted athlete. While at school, he competed in various athletic races and played football and cricket. Although he distinguished himself as a cricketer - having played for Oxford University in 1827 - William Webb Ellis will be forever remembered through his association with football, as the man
“who with fine disregard for the rules... took the ball in his arms and run with it... thus originating the Rugby game”.
A football game was played at Rugby School since the mid 18th century and the unwritten rules in force during Webb Ellis’ time required the schoolboy catching the ball on rebound to retire with it as far back as he desired. According to one of his contemporaries, Matthew Bloxam, William Webb Ellis instead of doing that, rushed forward with the ball, a “novelty” which although had had no immediate impact on the way the game was played at the time, became the distinctive feature of the football game at Rugby School, some 10-15 years later. Countless generations of schoolboys contributed to the evolution of the Rugby School football game, whose rules were drafted and written down for the first time in 1845.
On leaving school, William Webb Ellis went to Brasenose College in Oxford, where he won a scholarship. He took his BA in 1829 and his Master of Arts in 1831.
A year after completing his studies, William entered holy orders where his career took him from being curate for Gravesend onto London as priest and minister of St. George’s Church, and later to St. Clements Danes in the Strand. It was here, in 1844, that his mother died and was buried in the Crypt.
Eleven years later, William Webb Ellis moved to Essex as Rector of Magdalen Laver Church.
Meanwhile, in the South of France, an already popular winter destination, a Doctor Bennett was starting a quiet revolution. Attracted by the mild climate, he stayed in Menton in 1859 and claimed in a book published in 1861 to have recovered from tuberculosis. A wave of wealthy hopefuls then followed him to the French Riviera from all over Northern Europe and beyond, seeking cures for all manner of ills. It is quite likely that William went to Menton to look after his deteriorating health.
The town of Menton had a significant British expatriate community at the time and many of them, including William, stayed at the famous Hotel d’Italie, overlooking the sea. Sadly, Webb Ellis died on January 24, 1872, a few months after the first ever rugby international between England and Scotland had taken place. A few days before passing away, he bought the land for his grave in the Vieux Chateau Cemetery on the coast overlooking the town. Was he ever aware that his “fine disregard for the rules” of football at Rugby School in 1823 led to the birth of one of the great ball games of the century ? The reality is that nobody knows ! His tomb was rediscovered in 1958 by a local journalist Roger Dries and an Englishman Ross McWhirter.
To find out more please contact :
Rugby Visitor Centre
Tel : 01788 533217 or email
visitor.centre@rugby.gov.uk
or Service du Patrimoine
Tel : +33 (0)4 92 10 97 10 or email :
josiane.tricotti@ville-menton.fr France
This guide has been published by Rugby Borough Council. Rugby Borough Council would like to give special thanks to everyone who contributed to this publication.
