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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 688,135 page views. His biography is available in 24 different languages on Wikipedia. William Webb Ellis is the 106th most popular inventor (down from 89th in 2019), the 838th most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 689th in 2019) and the 19th most popular British Inventor.

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

Memorability Metrics

  • 690k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 60.57

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 24

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 8.89

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 1.72

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of William Webb Ellis by language


Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, William Webb Ellis ranks 106 out of 354. Before him are Léon Theremin, Henri Coandă, Robert Noyce, Taiichi Ohno, W. O. Bentley, and Jacque Fresco. After him are Joseph Pilates, Vladimir K. Zworykin, Zacharias Janssen, Mary the Jewess, André Michelin, and Samuel Crompton.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1806, William Webb Ellis ranks 10. Before him are Catherine Labouré, Benito Juárez, Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, Emilia Plater, Alexander Karađorđević, Prince of Serbia, and Omar Pasha. After him are Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller, Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse, Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov, Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, and Duchenne de Boulogne. Among people deceased in 1872, William Webb Ellis ranks 12. Before him are Théophile Gautier, Benito Juárez, Princess Feodora of Leiningen, Franz Grillparzer, Kawakami Gensai, and N. F. S. Grundtvig. After him are William John Macquorn Rankine, Stanisław Moniuszko, Prince Albert of Prussia, Zeng Guofan, Ljudevit Gaj, and Mary Somerville.

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 838 out of 7,765. Before him are Pete Townshend (1945), Petula Clark (1932), Osborne Reynolds (1842), Joseph Chamberlain (1836), Malcolm IV of Scotland (1141), and John Hanning Speke (1827). After him are Colin Maclaurin (1698), Owen Tudor (1400), Peter Finch (1916), Robert Graves (1895), Richard Hamilton (1922), and Anthony James Leggett (1938).

Others born in United Kingdom

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Among INVENTORS In United Kingdom

Among inventors born in United Kingdom, William Webb Ellis ranks 19. Before him are Richard Arkwright (1732), James Hargreaves (1720), Henry Bessemer (1813), John Harrison (1693), Edmund Cartwright (1743), and W. O. Bentley (1888). After him are Samuel Crompton (1753), Clive Sinclair (1940), John Kay (1704), Robert Stirling (1790), Jethro Tull (1674), and Charles Algernon Parsons (1854).

British born Inventors

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