William Webb Ellis:

Rev. William Webb Ellis (24 November 1806 – 24 February 1872) was an Anglican clergyman and the alleged inventor of Rugby football whilst a pupil at Rugby School. The William Webb Ellis Cup is presented to the winners of the Rugby World Cup

After his father was killed at the Battle of Albuera in 1811, Mrs Ellis decided to move to Rugby, Warwickshire so that William could receive an education at Rugby School. He attended the school from 1816 to 1825 and was recorded as being a good scholar and cricketer. The incident in which Webb Ellis supposedly caught the ball in his arms during a football match (which was allowed) and ran with it (which was not) is supposed to have happened in the latter half of 1823

After leaving Rugby in 1826, he went to Brasenose College, Oxford, aged 20. He became well known as a low church evangelical clergyman.

He never married and died in the south of France in 1872. His grave in “le cimetière du vieux château” at Menton in Alpes Maritimes was rediscovered by Ross McWhirter in 1958 and has since been renovated by the French Rugby Federation.