The Rugby Racket

#OTD in 1850 Frederick York Powell (Blake/Kilbracken 1864-1866) was born, he was an English historian and scholar.

#OTD in 1806 William Webb Ellis was born in Salford. Next year we will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of his decision to take the ball in his arms and run with it. #Rugby200

#OTD in 1882 Percy Wyndham Lewis was born. He was an English writer, painter, and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited BLAST, the literary magazine of the Vorticist…

#OTD in 1932 Donald Michie FRSE FBCS was born. He was a British researcher in artificial intelligence. During World War II, Michie worked for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, …

#OTD two first class English cricketers were born. Trevor Bowring in 1887 and Edward Hugh Falkwin Bradby in 1866.

#OTD in 1923 The Centenary Match was played on The Close to celebrate 100 years of. Rugby School's new book, Pass the Pig’s Bladder, celebrates 200 years of rugby football Buy the book here: rugbysch…

#OTD in 1907 Princess Henry of Battenberg visited Rugby School. The Head of School P Guedalla read the address.

#OTD in 1821 David Smyth Barttelot was born. He was an English cricketer. Barttelot's batting style is unknown. Joined Rugby School in 1833 with his brother Walter both in Anstey/Stanley.

#OTD in 1822 (although our registers say 19th October) Thomas Hughes was born. Hughes was in School House from 1834 and joined the same year as his brother George.

#OTD in 1894 a committee was appointed by the Old Rugbeian Society to investigate the origins of the game. They wrote to many Old Rugbeians and kept responses in this book including letters from Thom…

#OTD in 1873 Plum Warner was born. This is an image of him at the coin tossing for the Centenary "Tom Brown" Match.

#OTD in 1997 the William Webb Ellis statue on Dunchurch Road was unveiled. Created by Graham Ibbeson, just like our smaller version.