INVENTOR

William Webb Ellis

1806 - 1872

Photo of William Webb Ellis

Icon of person William Webb Ellis

William Webb Ellis (24 November 1806 – 24 January 1872) was an English Anglican clergyman who, by tradition, has been credited as the inventor of rugby football while a pupil at Rugby School. According to legend, Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it during a school football match in 1823, thus creating the "rugby" style of play. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of William Webb Ellis has received more than 702,721 page views. His biography is available in 24 different languages on Wikipedia. William Webb Ellis is the 89th most popular inventor (up from 106th in 2019), the 702nd most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 838th in 2019) and the 16th most popular British Inventor.

William Webb Ellis is most famous for being the inventor of Rugby.

Memorability Metrics

  • 700k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 62.37

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 24

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 6.22

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.28

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of William Webb Ellis by language

Over the past year William Webb Ellis has had the most page views in the with 159,909 views, followed by French (45,669), and Spanish (15,594). In terms of yearly growth of page views the top 3 wikpedia editions are French (262.25%), German (187.99%), and English (172.99%)

Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, William Webb Ellis ranks 89 out of 426. Before him are Henry Bessemer, James Hargreaves, Richard Arkwright, Vladimir K. Zworykin, Alexander Stepanovich Popov, and Mary the Jewess. After him are Wolfgang von Kempelen, Henri Coandă, Étienne-Jules Marey, André-Jacques Garnerin, Daniel Swarovski, and Elisha Otis.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1806, William Webb Ellis ranks 11. Before him are Catherine Labouré, Emilia Plater, Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, Alexander Karađorđević, Prince of Serbia, Otto Wilhelm Hermann von Abich, and Omar Pasha. After him are Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller, Charles Gleyre, Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle, and Johan Vilhelm Snellman. Among people deceased in 1872, William Webb Ellis ranks 10. Before him are Princess Sophie of Bavaria, Charles XV of Sweden, Théophile Gautier, Benito Juárez, Franz Grillparzer, and N. F. S. Grundtvig. After him are Stanisław Moniuszko, William John Macquorn Rankine, Ljudevit Gaj, Aleksis Kivi, Immanuel Nobel, and Zeng Guofan.

Others Born in 1806

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Others Deceased in 1872

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, William Webb Ellis ranks 702 out of 8,785. Before him are Charles Wheatstone (1802), James May (1963), George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592), Peter Greenaway (1942), Francis Hutcheson (1694), and David Brewster (1781). After him are Julian Huxley (1887), Chris Rea (1951), Ann Radcliffe (1764), John Surtees (1934), Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex (1964), and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550).

Others born in United Kingdom

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Among INVENTORS In United Kingdom

Among inventors born in United Kingdom, William Webb Ellis ranks 16. Before him are John Boyd Dunlop (1840), Henry Fox Talbot (1800), Thomas Savery (1650), Henry Bessemer (1813), James Hargreaves (1720), and Richard Arkwright (1732). After him are John Harrison (1693), Edmund Cartwright (1743), Samuel Crompton (1753), W. O. Bentley (1888), John Kay (1704), and Charles Algernon Parsons (1854).

British born Inventors

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